Tracy DeBrincat first came to us in 2003. You could say we know her pretty well by now!

What we love about Tracy’s writing is how she tackles multiple genres with equal dexterity. Sometimes, she will present a poem that’s both funny and bleak at the same time. Or, in a short story, she will explore the mysteries of the everyday life, and she teases them out, showing us what she sees. Her phrases and sentences can be full of hidden meanings and yet entirely clear. In short, we love her work—and editors do too. Keep reading to learn more about Tracy’s writing career.

IN HER OWN WORDS:
My first published piece appeared in a small ’zine called Diabolical Clits back in the early 1990s. (Don’t worry, Writer’s Relief had nothing to do with that!) When I began to build a body of work and wanted to try publishing on a more mainstream level, there were very few resources that sorted out journals and markets, and I found myself spending more time researching publication opportunities than actually writing.

Also, I’m the kind of writer who needs a deadline to keep me motivated. Without a deadline, I will do anything and everything but write. Writer’s Relief’s bimonthly submission cycle keeps me thinking about starting and completing new work. Plus, while I was working on my novel for years and feeling discouraged, having a shorter piece published here and there would get me back on the stick.

Writer’s Relief has helped me publish over 50 poems, short stories, and flash fiction in as many or more journals. They’ve always been there to encourage me, proofread my work, strategize over acceptances, and suggest alternate ways of presenting a piece that wasn’t getting accepted. And when my computer crashed last year and all my data was destroyed, Writer’s Relief had all my work archived in their files. Talk about a lifesaver!

ABOUT TRACY: Tracy DeBrincat’s novel Hollywood Buckaroo recently received the 2011 Big Moose Fiction Prize and will be published by Black Lawrence Press. Her debut story collection, Moon Is Cotton & She Laugh All Night (Subito Press), won the 2010 Prize for Innovative Fiction and was recently named a finalist for the 2011 Next Generation Indie Book Award. Her story “Badass” was awarded the 2011 Tusculum Review Prize by judge Aimee Bender. The story “Call It A Hat” will appear in the upcoming anthology of short stories inspired by art in Art From Art (selected and edited by Stephen Soucy, Modernist Press).

Tracy’s award-winning poems and stories have appeared in a variety of journals from Another Chicago Magazine to Zyzzyva. She is a freelance advertising consultant in the entertainment industry. Her hometown is San Francisco, but she loves living in Los Angeles. She is a volunteer mentor for the nonprofit organization WriteGirl, which empowers high school girls through creative writing. She also authors the blog “BigFoot Lives!”

Learn more about Tracy: www.tracydebrincat.com