Kay McSpadden

I taught since 1977 at high poverty schools in the rural South and retired in June 2021. I miss my colleagues and students every day!

"Notes from a Classroom" is a collection of essays about my students first published in my op-ed column in The Charlotte Observer. "A Child's Book of Virtues" is a multicultural collection of stories and myths for intermediate readers.

I also write literary fiction short stories. "Why Women Moan In Bed" won the Norman Mailer Fiction Prize in 2012. In 2017 my story "The Proxy" was a finalist in the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival Fiction Contest. My stories have appeared in The Saturday Evening Post, Kestrel, Cobalt, On the Premises, and Cobalt. Other short stories have been featured in regional journals, such as Luck, The Charlotte Writers Anthology, Main Street Rag, and We Are Not This.

For sci-fi and fantasy fans, "Orphans in the Black: A Space Opera" features 19 terrific writers (and my story "The Alien" is part of this e-book collection).

For fantasy fans, "Once Upon a Quest" is a terrific retelling of 15 fairy tales. Check out my story "Cat White" based on the French fairy tale "The White Cat."

For readers looking for a sci-fi fantasy mash-up, check out "Once Upon a Star." My story, "Candy House," is a sci-fi retelling of "Hansel and Gretel."

Love vampires and things that bite? My story "Yelp Reviews for Jacqueline's Beanstalk Cafe" is part of "Once Upon a Bite."

If horror and supernatural fairy tale mashups appeal to you, my story "Haunted" is in "Once Upon a Ghost."