Bridgette Shade was born in Great Falls, Montana - 1975, St. Patrick's Day. Since then, she has visited Ireland and Italy; Mexico and Canada, Iowa, Texas, North Carolina, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, D.C., Missouri, New York, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Florida, California, Indiana, Georgia, and Pennsylvania, where she makes her home in Pittsburgh.
She notes as she types this list how lucky she is to have traveled - still, her writing is almost always based upon the people and places she encounters within a five mile radius of her computer. She earned a B.A. in Communications from the University of Pittsburgh and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Carlow University.
Her manuscript Cactus People: Stories was a finalist for the 2012 Flannery O'Connor Prize. Her short fiction received First Honorable Mention from the Dana Awards and Best of the House from Clapboard House. Her stories have also been featured on Prosody, an NPR affiliate, and have appeared in various literary journals including Big Muddy, Compass Rose, The Oral Tradition, Caper Literary Journal, Clapboard House, Voices From the Attic, and Dionne's Story.
She is an Adjunct Professor of Writing with an emphasis on social justice at Waynesburg University.
