Brenda Joyce Patterson is a poet, writer, librarian, and TV talk show host. She writes a column, Writing Small, for DIY MFA, a Writers Digest best website for writers. She also hosts Writers Den, a Central Florida literary talk show. Past Writers Den guests have included Jennifer Givhan, Jamie Ford, Therese Ann Fowler, Wiley Cash, JoAnn Balingit, and Crystal Wilkinson. She is a past poetry mentee of AWP’s Writer to Writer Mentorship, Fall 2018. Her poetry and flash fiction appeared in Vayavya, Gravel Magazine, and Melancholy Hyperbole. Along with works by Maya Angelou, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Alice Walker, her travel essay, "The Kindness of Strangers", appeared in Go Girl: The Black Woman's Guide to Travel and Adventure (Eighth Mountain Press, 1997).