Joy Lanzendorfer is the author of the novel RIGHT BACK WHERE WE STARTED FROM. Other work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Washington Post, Alta, The Guardian, Smithsonian, and Poetry Foundation. Her nonfiction was listed as notable in The Best American Essays 2019, 2020, and 2022 and her article on the MacGowan sisters won the 2023 Excellence in Journalism Award from the Society of Professional Journalists.

Her fiction has appeared in Ploughshares, Raritan, Alaska Quarterly Review, Chicago Quarterly Review, Prairie Schooner, and others. The short story “The Bear” received special mention in the 2026 Pushcart Prizes and “Sleep Disturbance” was included in The Best Small Fictions 2019. Other work has earned honors from the de Groot Foundation, The Discovered Award for Emerging Literary Artists, Cuttyhunk Island Writers’ Residency, Hypatia-in-the-Woods, Spruceton Inn, and Hedgebrook. In 2025, Joy won Atmospheric Press’s Playa Flamingo Writing Residency, where she was able to spend time working in Costa Rica.

Joy is also a playwright. Her first play, MRS. DICKENS’ CHRISTMAS DINNER, was performed a staged reading by the Petaluma Readers’ Theatre in December 2025. An accomplished speaker, she previously hosted What’s the Story?, a book-related radio show/podcast that aired every week on 95.9 FM The Krsh. Joy lives near San Francisco with her husband and son. An avid nature lover, she became a certified Master Gardener in 2022.