Short Biography

Judah Mahay was born and raised in the rustic backwoods village of Talkeetna, Alaska. Always lingering in the distance was the majestic Mt. McKinley, the tallest vertical rise in the world. It's one of the most amazing gifts to a child’s ever widening eyes.

As a boy, he started working for his father’s jet boat business, Mahay's Riverboat Service. At nineteen, he obtained his 25 Ton Master's U.S. Coast Guard Captains License and started expeditions in Alaska's wild rivers, which brought him into the unclassifiable whitewater of Devil’s Canyon. Life in Alaska has filled him with a strong sense of both the beauty and horror of adventure.

During his six years of college, he took a string of odd courses which, to his delight, delayed graduation. Some of his favorite classes included Magic, Witchcraft & Religion, Latin, the Science of Science Fiction, Greek Mythology, Academic & Professional Writing, and the Etymology of Chinese Characters. While in college, he held a slew of jobs stretching him in ways he previously thought impossible. A great example is the experience he gained with Hope Network’s NeuroRehabilitation division. He kept psychopathic patients from either killing themselves or him, providing an appreciation for the complexities and diseases of the mind. While traveling across Europe and Japan, he surveyed cultures, philosophies and ideals, building a sense of global intrigue, which established the foundation for his worlds.

In late 2008, he had his first story Lord of the Dome published in New York Twist Magazine and not to long after The Trees of Evermore won a writing contest to be published in the North Shoreian Magazine. A few months later Lord of the Dome was made into a short film after winning a contest by WeMakeYourMovie.

Along with these accomplishments, he founded the business community and resource BeYourArt.com, educates artists on the business of art. The website has grown to over seven hundred artists and has published eleven video/audio podcasts, co-published ten articles with the North Shoreian Magazine, and hosted the annual "Be Your Art Writing Contest" where the winner received a custom artist logo worth five hundred dollars.

In the fall of 2009, his poem Willow was published in Mississippi Crow Magazine.

In the beginning of 2010, he will have the amazing opportunity to have a two week residency at Robert Wilson's Watermill Center, where he will write the Watermill Grimoire, along with a handful of character driven vignettes based on artifacts from the Watermill archive. The characters from the vignettes will be the driving force behind the Watermill Grimoire fairy tale.

He was a preliminary judge for storysouth's 2009 Million Writers Award. He read through a long list of wonderful science fiction and fantasy stories to finally select a handful to be considered as the winning story.

Currently, Judah lives on Long Island with his wife Lorien where he spends his free time writing short stories, and working on his novels under the watchful eye of his cat, Athena.