Joe David Bellamy was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. He attended Duke University, Antioch College, and the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop. Bellamy won the Editors' Book Award for his novel Suzi Sinzinnati, and his collection of short fiction, Atomic Love, was an AWP Award Series Selection. He is also author or editor of fifteen other books, including Kindred Spirits, New World Extra, Literary Luxuries, The New Fiction, Superfiction, American Poetry Observed, Island in the Sky, and two collections of poetry. His new novel, Green Freedom, is forthcoming in 2011 from Narrative Library.
Bellamy was the founding editor and publisher of Fiction International magazine and press. A former president of both the Associated Writing Programs (AWP) and the Coordinating Council of Literary Magazines (CCLM), he served as Director of the Literature Program of the National Endowment for the Arts in the early 90s. He has been a member of the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) since 1980 and served as a member of the NBCC Board of Directors from 2001 to 2004.
His articles, fiction, poetry, and reviews have been published in: The Atlantic, The Nation, Harper's, Paris Review, Narrative, The New York Times Book Review, Ploughshares, Partisan Review, Story, North American Review, The Washington Post Book World, and some seventy others.
He has taught at several colleges and universities, including the University of Iowa, Virginia Wesleyan College, St. Lawrence University, and George Mason University and was Whichard Distinguished Professor in the Humanities at East Carolina University. His literary papers are archived at the Beinecke Library at Yale University. "