Jo Mazelis (born 1956) is a Welsh writer. Her 2014 novel Significance was awarded the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize 2015. Her short story collections have been short- or long-listed for prizes, including Wales Book of the Year. She has also worked as a professional graphic designer.
Mazelis's first collection of short stories, Diving Girls (2002), was shortlisted for both Wales Book of the Year and Commonwealth Best First Book.[2]
Her second collection of stories, Circle Games (2005), was long-listed for Wales Book of the Year.[2]
In 2014, Mazelis wrote a collection of surreal dystopian fiction for Go! Be a Bird!, a collaborative work with award-winning artist Susan Adams.[3] She also published the novel Significance (2014), which was awarded the 2015 Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize.[4]
Mazelis's third collection, Ritual, 1969 (2016), was long-listed for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize[5] and shortlisted for Wales Book of the Year in 2017.[6]
Several of Mazelis's stories have also been broadcast on BBC Radio 4 including Too Perfect, Snakeskin Becomes Her and The Blackberry Season.[2]
Reviewing Circle Games, Anna Scott in the New Welsh Review wrote, "Mazelis plays with the reader, introducing the unexpected by the back door. Fearlessly scrutinising the desires and impulses of her characters, segueing nightmarish fantasies into reality."[7]
Reviewing Ritual, 1969, Rupert Dastur in The Short Story wrote, "Mazelis explores a dazzling range of ideas, geographies and times, often couched in the daily realities of women and children, the marginalised and the powerless, the scared, hopeless, and hapless ... Ritual, 1969 reveals the absolute mastery Mazelis has over the short form and this third collection is a superb display of a writer keenly attentive to the human mind, its motives and its mysteries."[8]
Mazelis has exhibited her artwork at Camerawork, London and the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, and had solo exhibitions at The Camera Club, London and The Dylan Thomas Centre, and a joint show at the Pontardawe Arts Centre. Her photography has been used for a variety of publications from online journals to print magazine covers and book jackets.[citation needed]
In the 1980s Mazelis collaborated as a screenwriter for a student film in which she also acted. She also acted in a Super 8 film The Fate of Cain made by Barry Assinder which was shown at the London Film Festival.
Selected publications
Diving Girls (short stories, Parthian, 2002; published in Danish translation as Forbuden Frugt by Arvids, 2007)
Circle Games (short stories, Parthian, 2005)
Significance (novel, Seren, 2014)
Ritual, 1969 (short stories, Seren, 2016)
Skin and other short stories (short stories, CPI Group, 2022)
Blister and Other Stories (as JK Mazelis) (short stories, Redrobe Books, 2022)