Christy began writing at the age of eight, and almost immediately started work on what would become her much renowned (by family at least) debut collection of stories, Tales of Terror. “A wonderful and scary book by a brilliant little girl,” one reader (her mother) said. “Creepy,” her brother said years later. “There always was something a little off about Christy. Truthfully, I expected her to be in jail by now.”
As she got older, Christy continued to write, but kept her stories secret. A dedicated closet writer, she filled boxes with manuscripts she was too shy and too insecure to let anyone else read. To support her writing habit she worked as a market researcher, a realtor, a program director for a family entertainment center, a catering director and event planner, and a call center manager.
It wasn’t until her daughters were grown that a chance encounter with an old friend led her to a writing workshop, and she began to take herself seriously as an artist. And it wasn’t until she joined a writing group that she had the support and encouragement to begin submitting her work.
In the spring of 2008, hoping to give other writers that same encouragement, Christy’s critique group formed WriterHouse, a non-profit writing center in Charlottesvllle, Virginia. Since opening, WriterHouse has become home to over 200 members and has helped give birth to novels, award winning short stories, and poetry collections.
Christy has come a long way since the days she hid her manuscripts in cardboard boxes under her bed. Her fiction has appeared in New South: Georgia State University’s Journal of Art and Literture, Pearl Magazine , Delmarva Review, Prime Number Magazine, Fast Forward: The Mix Tape, A Collection of Flash Fiction, Vol 3, onepagestories, and lifewithobjects. Her story, “Moving,” won first place in the 2008 HooK Short Story Contest judged by John Grisham, and her story “Just Like Family” won third place in the 2009 HooK Short Story Contest. She is the recipient of the 2012 Marianne Russo Award from the Key West Literary Seminar, and has been awarded residencies at The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, The Studios of Key West, and Hambidge.
She is currently at work on a novel and a collection of short stories about characters who respond to difficult situations in unusual and some might say crazy ways.
Christy Strick 