Short Biography

Judah Mahay is, first and foremost, an author who revels in subverting the mythic into reality and taking science to plausible extremes. Being born and raised in the rustic backwoods of Alaska and traveling the world has provided him with a diverse perspective on life, culture, and society.

As a boy, he started working for his family’s jet boat business, Mahay’s Jet Boat Adventures. At nineteen, he obtained his 25-Ton Masters U.S. Coast Guard Captain’s 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.

In late 2008, he had his first story, “Lord of the Dome,” published in New York Twist Magazine, and not too long after, “The Trees of Evermore” won a writing contest to be published in the North Shoreian Magazine.

Along with these accomplishments, he founded the business community and resource BeYourArt.com. The website grew to almost seven hundred artists and published eleven video/audio podcasts, co-published ten articles with the North Shoreian Magazine, and hosted an annual “Be Your Art Writing Contest” where the winner received a custom artist logo worth five hundred dollars. Sadly the site was closed in 2011 as Judah decided to devote more time to his own art.

In the fall of 2009, his poem “Willow” was published in Mississippi Crow Magazine after the editor of the magazine found it on his site and asked to publish it.

He was also blessed to be a preliminary judge for storysouth’s 2009-2012 Million Writers Award. Each time he read through a long list of wonderful science fiction and fantasy stories to finally select a handful to be considered as potential winners.

At the beginning of 2010, he had the amazing opportunity to have a two-week residency at Robert Wilson’s Watermill Center, where he wrote the Watermill Grimoire, along with a handful of character-driven vignettes based on artifacts from the Watermill archive. The characters from the vignettes are the driving force behind the Watermill Grimoire fairy tale.

Awarded a grant from the New York Foundation for the Arts issued by the East End Arts Council to fund his Watermill Grimoire project.

In 2013, Judah was honored by the Long Island Council for the Arts in Freeport for his contributions to Long Island as an advocate for the arts.

In 2016 he finished his Master of Fine Art in Creative Writing and Literature at Stony Brook Southampton by completing his thesis, a novel entitled Body Insurance. When July hit, he published “In The Beginning Was Logos” in Sick Lit Magazine, his first story written since graduating. In early 2017 Sick Lit Magazine also published “Death Wish.”

In 2022 his story “In the Future Sense” was published by Harrisburg Magazine.

Currently, Judah lives in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, with his wife Lorien, his son Cedric, and daughter Lyra where he writes his otherworldly tales, usually during any form of twilight. During his day job, he teaches English and Creative Writing at St. Joseph’s University, Millersville University, and Penn State Harrisburg.

With any spare time he can muster, he cooks scrumptious vegan food, reads vigorously, dives too deep into RPG video games, and plays all too intense ice hockey.

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