Joy O'Sleibhte

Author on Reedsy Prompts since May, 2024

Stories (2)

2 Stories

37 karma pts

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“The Phenomenal Power of a Fractured Mind” by Joy O'Sleibhte

Submitted to Contest #261

TW: CSA, suicidal ideation, mental illness I gritted my teeth so hard they squeaked. The physical compression was all that was keeping me from screaming. I checked the clock—2:25. Still ninety minutes left on my shift. The thing had been banging on the inside of my skull all day. It was as if there was a door in my brain, and some entity was knocking incessantly. It wanted to tell me something; I could feel its urgency like a physical sensation, but every time I considered letting it in, an unparalleled terror smashed into me. I returned to...

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“Paradise Lost” by Joy O'Sleibhte

Submitted to Contest #248

I run my hand over my stomach, uncomfortably stretched in my eighth month of pregnancy. It seems like the only noticeable thing about me, these days. According to my family, my church, my school, my everyone, I’m just a suitcase for a child people pray will turn out better than I have. Literally. I’ve heard Mama say those words, eyes clamped shut, clutching her crucifix. My thighs stick together in the sweltering heat of the cramped sanctuary. The windows of the little Catholic church are dragged up a few inches, but the muggy breeze th...

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Author bio

Stories have radically changed my life. I have found myself in them, drowned myself in them, and learned to love myself in them. If I can give even a snippet of that to others through my writing, I will be a very happy human being. I have been writing poetry and short stories since I was six years old, and am currently 50,000 words into my first novel. I am a current resident of the Southwestern US desert, but still desperately in love with my home in the thick of Irish-American Appalachia. Having lived all over the United States, I love to incorporate the rich and varied landscape of American cultures into my work. I also find joy in weaving themes of mental illness and trauma-recovery into my storytelling, as these topics are near and dear to my heart and deserve much more compassionate representation in the media. Last but not least, I am nothing if not a fangirl, and have found a joyful community and a fresh love of everything story-related through my involvement in Archive of our Own. My pet hot take is that writing fan fiction is the single best way to improve one's original writing, and I will die on that hill! I run a YouTube channel where I ramble about reading recommendations and writing advice, so feel free to look me up on YouTube as Joy O'Sleibhte!