Carolyn Burns Bass

With a father who swallowed swords and a repentant chanteuse as a mother, is it any wonder Carolyn Burns Bass became a writer?

Carolyn is a hybrid of creative expression. With notebook and camera in hand, she's wandered the moors of Yorkshire, bicycled beside rice paddies in Japan, stalked kangaroos in Australia, and ridden elephants in Thailand.

Carolyn is currently seeking representation for her novel, The Sword Swallower's Daughter, and has had short fiction published in a variety of online literary journals. Her short story, "Sketches Past and Present," was a finalist for the 2013 Eric Hoffer Award for short prose and is published in the anthology Best New Writing 2013. You can read more about Carolyn's fiction here.

In 2009 Carolyn founded the #litchat hashtag used in Twitter for literary discussion and established the companion blog, LitChat. In the four years since its inception, #litchat has hosted dozens of authors for online conversation about reading and writing. Follow @LitChat on Twitter.

Carolyn's nonfiction writing and/or photos have appeared in magazines and media such as Prevue, California Meetings + Events, Incentive, Greer’s OC, Examiner.com, Riverside Press-Enterprise, Contemporary Christian Music, CCM, Charisma, and her personal blog, Ovations.

Carolyn studied communications and creative writing at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, California and Japanese language studies through the University of Maryland extension in Iwakuni, Japan.

Photo background pictured here is copyright © 2005 by Carolyn Burns Bass. Photo was taken April 1, 2005 from the bluff-side patio of the Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel.