Biography
Stephanie Flood was born in poverty in Cebu City, Philippines and adopted in the United States at the age of two. Her birth name was Desiree Maru. Stephanie has a background in creative writing, mixed media and photography. She hails with a Master of Library and Information Science, a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, and Bachelor of Science in Journalism. As a Pushcart Prize Nominee (2015), her fiction stories, mixed media art and creative nonfiction essays have been featured in numerous literary magazines and journals since 2015. Mixed media art has been featured at conferences, literary magazines and blogs. Additionally, she published the first-of-its-kind hybrid mixed media thesis in her MFA Creative Writing Program in Northern Arizona University, where she used visuals and epistolary literary methods to amplify her storytelling. Stephanie has been an active community member of InterCountry Adoptee Voices (ICAV), as a critical blogger and social media activist supporting Intercountry adoptee voices since 2017. Additionally, she has worked in public libraries in Arizona and later in Hawaii when she moved to Honolulu in 2018. In 2022, Stephanie additionally taught Yearbook and later Creative Writing in 2023 in Honolulu, Hawaii at Kamehameha Schools, where she published her first middle school literary magazine titled, My Hawaiian Identity. After her journeys in Hawaii, Stephanie decided to settle down in Indianapolis, Indiana where she now works as a full-time librarian at a downtown public library. As a librarian, she enjoys lifting up community voices through her public service work, supporting diversity, equity and inclusion in committee meetings and outreach, coordinating exhibits and displays for the public and staff, as well as managing her assigned area of an extensive nonfiction book collection which includes her favorite subjects of creative arts, crafts and design. On her free time, she enjoys visiting the Philippine Cultural Community Center. She loves to travel, take photos and share her daily inspirations on Instagram. |
Credits
Essays: AGNI, Foliate Oak Literary Magazine, The Writing Disorder, Journey Magazine, Hole in The Donut Cultural Travel Mixed Media: Nzuir: The Online Journal of Umoja Community, Oyster River Pages, The Tishman Review, Helen Literary Magazine, The Sonder Review, Storm Cellar, The Healing Muse Fiction: Third Flatiron Anthologies, The Story Shack, On the Rusk, Gone Lawn Journal Published Anthology: Third Flatiron's Best of 2015 Anthology, Book 14 Nonfiction: The Flagstaff Live, The Noise, The Daily Sun, Mountain Living Magazine Adoptee Media: Adoptee Voices, InterCountry Adoptee Voices (ICAV), Overcoming Odds, AdopTree Project: Exploring Asian Adoption Narratives, The Write Place at the Write Time |