Joy Parks

Ottawa, Canada
Website: http://seedcreativecontent.com/

Professional Experience

I have nearly 30 years of experience in writing reviews, interviews, profiles and articles for magazines, newspapers and other publications. In addition, I have worked in marketing communications and advertising as a copywriter in both freelance and staff capacities. My commercial clients have ranged from small boutique food chains to international high tech companies. During my years as a marketing writer, I had the opportunity to write advertising campaigns, online campaigns and websites, newsletters, brochures, radio spots, catalogues and a variety of other communications materials. Currently, in addition to my freelance work, I provide research and writing services for a national postal administrations philatelic (stamp) operations. This work includes topical copy for collectible products such as covers and booklets, articles for a branded content publication and marketing/pr materials.

Expertise

Copywriter
20 Years
Writer
25 Years
Other, Specify
25 Years

Specialty

Books & Literature
25 Years
Consumer Products
5 Years
Food
9 Years

Industries


Advertising, client side
5 Years
Advertising agency
10 Years
Magazine - Trade magazines/publications (B2B)
5 Years

Total Media Industry Experience

27 Years

Media Client List (# assignments last 2 yrs)

Publisher's Weekly (10+), Globe and Mail (Toronto) (3-5), Imbibe Magazine (1-2), San Francisco Chronicle (1-2)

Corporate Client List (# assignments last 2 yrs)

A consumer product design start-up (10+), PR and promotions for greenmeloninc.com (10+), A regional specialty food retailer (6-10)

Other Work History

In addition to holding senior creative staff positions at graphic design studios, publishing/communications firms and advertising agencies, I have worked as the copy chief at the in-house agency of a major software developer. I have also worked as an editor at a small children's publishing company, ghost-written columns for tech CEOs on recruitment, innovation and other business issues, written professional summaries of business books for a well-known corporate education publisher, and freelanced as a monthly book columnist and feature writer for a national news magazine. In my spare time, I write fiction and have published close to a dozen short stories. http://www.mediabistro.com/resumes/joyparks1

Computer Skills

Word, PowerPoint

Awards

I have won more than 50 awards for my work in advertising and marketing. In early 2008, I was informed I had won (in a three-way tie) the Gaylactic Spectrum award for my short story "Instinct," published in The Future is Queer (Arsenal Pulp).

Associations

National Book Critic's Circle, AvantGuild

Showcase

Fiction

Touching Stone
(Back to Basics/Bella Books 1/1/2004)
Little Black Dress
(Hot and Bothered 4, Arsenal Pulp Press 11/1/2003)
States of Grace
(Call of the Dark/Bella Books 7/11/2005)
Sweet Thing
(Best Lesbian Erotica 2007/Cleis Press 11/1/2006)
Instinct
(The Future is Queer/Arsenal Pulp Press 11/1/2006)
I received the 2007 Gaylactic Spectrum Award for Short Fiction (representing the best science fiction, fantasy or horror short fiction with significant positive GLBT content) for Instinct, published in the multiple award-winning anthology, The Future Is Queer (Arsenal Pulp Press).
Sweet Thing
(Sometimes She Lets Me: Best Butch Femme Erotica/Cleis Press 2/1/2010)
WINNER OF THE 2011 LAMBDA LITERARY AWARD FOR LESBIAN EROTICA Winner of the 2011 National Leather Association International's Samois Anthology Award
Under the Sea
(Best Date Ever: True Stories That Celebrate Lesbian Relationships/ 4/1/2007)
Mother's Day
(Fantasy: Untrue Stories of Lesbian Passion/Bella Books 7/1/2007)
Coming When You Call
(First-Timers: True Stories of Lesbian Awakening/Alyson Books 6/1/2006)
Sweet Thing
(The Perfect Valentine/Bella Books 1/1/2006)
S.O.A.R.
(Best Lesbian Love Stories 2010/Alyson Books 6/1/2009)
Tuesday Night
(Wild Nights: (Mostly) True Stories of Women Loving Women/Bella Books 1/1/2007)

Blogs

CONTENTional Thinking
(3/9/2011)
My occasional blog on branded content, social media, copywriting, marketing and related topics.
Her Joyful Noise
(8/7/2011)
My personal blog on books, baking and other heady stuff.

Articles

The Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II (Part 1)
(Details (Canada Post) 1/1/2012)
Branded content on stamps to celebration Queen Elizabeth's 60-year reign.
Canadian Innovation
(Canada Post/Details Magazine 6/28/2011)
A story on a set of commemorative stamps on Canadian inventions.
Sampler of my work in Herizons
(Herizons 6/23/2025)
A collection of links to articles of mine that have appeared in Herizons magazine.
Butch in the Streets and in the Sheets
(DIVA (UK) 6/1/2002)
A profile of writer Karen Tulchinsky
On Tour With Nicole Conn
(Girlfriends 10/1/2001)
Interview with Nicole Conn, author and filmmaker.
Sleaze, Trash and Miracles
(Velvet Park 9/1/2003)
How Ann Bannon changed lesbian fiction by writing about the butch of her dreams.
Sweet Egg-Nigma
(Imbibe 12/1/2006)
An essay on the history and mystery of the egg cream.
Quality is a pressing issue
(Details (Canada Post) 1/1/2006)
When you're printing millions of dollars worth of stamps a day, there's no room for error.
Big Press is Big News
(Details (Canada Post) 11/1/2005)
What made the historic Canadian Bank Note Company tear a hole in their roof?
Fashion Statement
(Herizons 7/1/2008)
What happens when a feminist reveals her passion for fashion?
Mad Men, Mad Women
(Herizons 4/15/2009)
A historic look at the role women have played in creating advertising directed at women's markets.
The Book That Made Me...
(Lambda Book Report 9/1/2006)
An essay about my childhood affection for To Kill A Mockingbird's Scout.
Details Magazine
(Stamp Services at Canada Post 1/1/2011)
I wrote all editorial content in the Winter 2011 issue of Details magazine.
Mental Health Stamp Story
(Canada Post/Details Magazine 6/28/2011)
A story on one of Canada Post's semi-postal stamps
Miss Supertest III
(Canada Post/Details Magazine 6/28/2011)
A story on a stamp to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Miss Supertest III Harmsworth victory.
Roadside Attractions
(Canada Post/Details Magazine 6/28/2011)
A story on the Roadside Attractions Stamp series.
Details Magazine
(Stamp Services at Canada Post 4/28/2011)
All editorial content for the Spring 2011 issue of Details magazine.
Community, Country and Kitchen Table: A talk with Ivan E. Coyote
(Books in Canada 5/1/2003)
Interview with write Ivan E. Coyote and a review of One Man's Trash
Lesbian Erotica Minus Lesbians
(Girlfriends 3/1/2002)
An essay on the "mainstreaming and masculinization" of lesbian sexuality.
Straying from the Gender Pack
(Herizons 6/1/2003)
An interview with Ivan E. Coyote
Hey, How'd You Build A 50-Title Publishing Network?
(mediabistro.com 12/16/2008)
Interview with Tracey Ryder, editor-in-chief of the Edible Communities' 50+ local food magazines.
Minnie Bruce Pratt: The Poet vs The Profiteers
(Herizons 1/15/2012)
Interview with Minnie Bruce Pratt--on economics, poetry and the place where the two connect.

Reviews

The Sweet Sixteen: The Journey That Inspired the Canadian Women's Press Club
(Quill & Quire (Toronto) 3/1/2012)
Blame it on the grain
(Gastronomica 5/27/2010)
A review essay on two books that examine the relationship between food production/consumption and urbanism.
Beggar of Love Book Review
(Lambda Book Report 12/1/2009)
Book review of a recent work by a well-known lesbian author.
Atwood's Big Tent
(The Ottawa Citizen 1/15/2006)
Review of Margaret Atwood's The Tent
Legalizing Same-Sex Marriage in Canada
(Books in Canada 9/1/2002)
Review of Just Married: Gay Marriage and the Expansion of Human Rights by Kevin Bourassa and Joe Varnell
The Super Feminine Lesbian
(Books in Canada 12/1/2002)
Village dish served cold
(San Francisco Chronicle 1/22/2006)
Review of The Man Who Would Marry Susan Sontag And Other Intimate Literary Portraits of the Bohemian Era by Edward Field
Group started fight for lesbian civil rights
(San Francisco Chronicle 10/30/2006)
Review of Different Daughters: A History of the Daughters of Bilitis and the Birth of the Lesbian Rights Movement By Marcia M. Gallo
Barstool politics
(San Francisco Chronicle 6/29/2003)
Review of Wide-Open Town: A History of Queer San Francisco to 1965 by Nan Alamilla Boyd
Dark stories of outsiders bristle with danger, mania
(San Francisco Chronicle 1/22/2006)
Review of The Last Time I Saw You By Rebecca Brown
Nothing Doing
(The Globe and Mail 4/29/2006)
A review of Joyland by Emily Schultz
Standout Sisters/Upbeat Ideas
(The Advocate 6/21/2005)
Brief book reviews
Confessions of the Pope
(Literary Review of Canada 5/1/2001)
A review essay on Carole Pope's Anti Diva
Review of Highsmith: A Romance of the 1950s, A Memoir by Marijane Meaker
(Bitch 6/1/2003)
A closer look at Meaker's relationship with mystery writer Patricia Highsmith.
A last laugh on the rich
(Globe and Mail 5/6/2006)
A review of Wendy Wasserstein's Elements of Style.
For girls at fringes, struggle's a familiar refrain
(San Francisco Chronicle 2/16/2007)
A review of Baby Remember My Name, edited by Michelle Tea
STORIES OF FORBIDDEN PASSION ... THEY DARED TO READ!
(San Francisco Chronicle 6/26/2005)
Review of Lesbian Pulp Fiction: The Sexually Intrepid World of Lesbian Paperback Novels 1950-1965, edited by Katherine V. Forrest
Dishing on straight girls and their gay boyfriends
(San Francisco Chronicle 6/3/2007)
Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys: True Tales of Love, Lust, and Friendship Between Straight Women and Gay Men, edited by Melissa de la Cruz and Tom Dolby
So what's a girl to do?
(Toronto Star 1/28/2003)
A review of Brazen Femme: Queering Femininity, by Anna Camilleri and Chloë Brushwood Rose
Straight America's first peeks into the closet
(San Francisco Chronicle 9/19/2004)
Review of "Queer Beats: How the Beats Turned America On to Sex" by Regina Marler
"I wanted that blue"
(The Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide 5/1/2004)
A review of Felicia Luna Lemus' Trace Elements of Random Tea Parties
Partners in Pain
(Girlfriends 12/1/2001)
A review essay on lesbian domestic violence
Review of Motherless Child
(Quill & Quire 6/1/2012)
Review of the novel Motherless Child.
Desire Lines
(Quill and Quire 1/1/2014)
Review of Desire Lines: Stories of Love and Geography by Mary Soderstrom
Gastropolis: New York City and Food
(Gastronomica 8/28/2010)
A review of Gastropolis: New York City and Food
Review of Grayling
(Quill and Quire 3/1/2014)
Review of Melymbrosia by Virginia Woolf
(Velvet Park 3/1/2003)
A review of Virginia Woolf's "lost" first novel.
Strange Century, the Fourteenth
(The Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide 9/1/2001)
Review of Susann Cokal's Mirabilis.
Review of Marcia M Gallo's Different Daughters
(Bitch 3/1/2007)
A review of Gallo's history of the Daughters of Bilitis and the Birth of the Lesbian Rights Movement.
Review of Just Beneath My Skin
(Quill and Quire 4/1/2014)
Joey learns the cello
(Globe and Mail 10/21/2006)
Review of Ivan E. Coyote's Bow Grip
Review of Inside the Money Machine by Minnie Bruce Pratt
(Herizons 1/15/2012)
Kolia
(Quill and Quire 10/1/2013)
Review of translated Russian novel by Perrine LeBlanc; David Scott Hamilton, trans
Writing the Revolution
(Quill & Quire (Toronto) 12/1/2011)
A review of Michelle Landsberg's Writing the Revolution--a collection of her Toronto Star newspaper columns.

Essays

Why I don't want to marry (and I why I don't want you to either)
(First Person Queer: Who We Are (So Far)/Arsenal Pulp Press 11/1/2007)
How Not to Fall in Love with a Lesbian Celebrity
(Second Person Queer: Who You Are (So Far)/Arsenal Pulp Press 5/1/2009)

Marketing/Advertising

Commercial/Marketing/Advertising Work
(Various clients 6/23/2025)
My marketing and advertising writing for various clients.
Seed Creative Content
(1/2/2013)
My content/copywriting consulting company