About
Janet Stilson lives in two worlds. She’s a journalist. In the other, she writes scripts, novels and short stories that largely fall in the grounded sci-fi and fantasy genres.
Janet’s novels, “The Juice” and “Universe of Lost Messages,” are cyberpunk tales that were inspired by her work as an editor and reporter, interviewing execs at big media companies about where the heck we’re all going.
“Juice” was published by Dragon Moon Press on Feb. 9, 2021. And in 2025, it was released as an audiobook, featuring two exceptional, award-winning narrators. “Universe” was published May 14, 2024 and has won two awards: an NYC Big Book Award and an IPPY (Independent Pulbisher Book Award). Her short stories have been published by Asimov’s, Metastellar, and The Pink Hydra.
Based on her film script “Jaguar Trail,” Janet was selected to be part of the Writers Lab for Women, which is funded by Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman. Stowe Story Labs also selected “Jaguar” to be part of its intensive mentorship program in 2018.
As a journalist, Janet got her “chops” at the storied showbiz bible “Variety.” She has traveled the world chronicling the business of media and entertainment. It afforded her many busman’s holidays in places like Shanghai and Paris, for which she is forever grateful.
Janet has also worked as a consultant and researcher, specializing in the business of media. Separately and in conjunction with others, she has provided services to such clients as Liberty Media, Microsoft Corp., Oxygen, Discovery Communications and MTV Networks.
She has been an artist in residence at Dorland, a retreat in Southern California; the Julia and David White Artists’ Colony in Costa Rica; Odysseys, also in Costa Rica, and La Muse in southern France.
Janet lives in New York City’s Riverdale area. It’s a world away from her childhood home in a gorgeous upstate New York town called Franklin. Cars pass through Franklin in almost the blink of an eye, and she hopes it stays that way.
