After receiving an internationally recognized CRLA (College Reading and Learning Association) certification, Joy worked in a Developmental or Academic Literacy classroom at Oakland Community College for ten years. She has earned an Associate Degree in Liberal Arts, a Bachelor Degree in English, and completed the courses for an MA in English Literature with an emphasis on The American Renaissance from Oakland University. Joy also holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Ashland University, Ohio.Joy has taught as a visiting writer at Wayne State University, Michigan State, Frostburg State University, and at the Lapeer Correctional Facility for the Prison Creative Writing Project (PCAP) through the University of Michigan where she worked with male “lifers.”
She teaches, or has taught, for non-profits in the Detroit area, including Springfed Arts and the renowned InsideOut Literary Arts Project that serves Detroit public school kids. One of her greatest pleasures is teaching private workshops in poetry and memoir with adult students, many of whom have been taking her workshops for years.
A multiple Pushcart Nominee, Joy’s work has won numerous awards and is published in over 100 literary magazines and journals including Poetica, Ekphrasis, Poetry East, The Kentucky Review, RATTLE, The Patterson Review, and others. Her work is also included in the stunning anthology, Michigan in Poetry in Michigan, and, The Bloomsbury Anthology of Jewish American Poetry.
Twenty years a professional photographer Joy sees poetry as a natural extension of the photographic art form: both use images, contrast, tensions, a kind of rhythm and tone to convey what language alone, cannot.