Meet Amanda Clay!: An RT member profile by Tess Goldwasser

By Tess Goldwasser

This week’s RT member is Amanda Clay. She is a very talented writer, so I’m just going to let her tell you about herself. Take it away Amanda! Yeah!

Currently I have no specific role in the GLBTRT. I am a past chair of the Stonewall Book Award Committee (and I have the rainbow tiara to prove it).  Once I’ve rested from that undertaking, I plan on taking on another, as-yet-unspecified role. There’s a lot to do within the RT, and I’m eager to try on another hat. Besides the tiara.

My life is more domestic than professional at this stage in the game. I’m a part0time reference librarian and a full-time stay at home mom, which involves a lot of reading and library activities. I’ve memorized a lot of picture books in the last five years: I’ll recite one on demand! I have a wonderful partner of 11 years who is an Education Professor at Clemson University, which allows me the incredible luxury of staying home with our 3 year old daughter. We do a lot of cooking, gardening, swimming, bicycle riding, finger painting, and building with Legos, plus lots and lots of reading. In my spare time (ha!), I write YA fiction and have even published a book, with the hopes of publishing many more.

My passions include writing, my kid, and finding ways to connect queer youth in red states with the books that can save their lives (or at least their sanity). Professionally, I’m proudest of Echo, my novel, and of my time on Stonewall.  Personally, while it’s a dull cliché, I’m proudest of my daughter. She’s my little firecracker and I can’t wait to see what she has in store of all of us. My goals include publishing more books and, after Ace goes to school, becoming a full time teen librarian.  The system where I work is in desperate need of some quality programming and I am full of ideas. Or something. I’m definitely full of something.

If I were an animal, I’d like to be the spoiled, pampered housecat of a very wealthy queen.

My five ideal dinner guests is a nearly-impossible question!  Right now I think I’d most enjoy an evening with Mary Renault, Angela Carter, Natalie Barney, Oscar Wilde and John Waters. Though they are all welcome to bring a friend!

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