The Editors
We are the editors of this wonderful journal, but first and foremost we are readers and writers ourselves. Nothing makes us happier than discovering the next great story and sharing it through the pages of Grande Dame Literary & Art Journal.
Kate Becker, Founder/Managing Editor
Kate Becker is the Managing Editor and Founder of Grande Dame Literary & Art Journal. Her professional writing career spans marketing communications and public relations, with a focus on development and fundraising for nonprofit organizations.
Her passion, however, has always been fiction. Discouraged from pursuing a writing career — a detour Kate has since remedied with gusto and determination — she wholeheartedly writes whenever the muse nudges her. The desire to write never left her, and today she has several pieces forthcoming, a cozy mystery series underway, and her passion project, Grande Dame Literary & Art Journal.
Through the journal, Kate hopes to give other writers the encouragement she once lacked — and for those who want to make a career of writing, as many of the journal’s contributors have done or are doing, she wants to help open that door.
In addition to her work with the journal, Kate works as a developmental editor specializing in short stories. Her personal website is currently under construction and will return by summer 2026.
Learn more about Kate and her writing philosophy on ChillSubs
S.J. Walker, Senior Editor
S.J. Walker is the Senior Editor and has been with Grande Dame almost since the beginning. She is a full-time mother of two who writes dark fiction and thriller. S.J.’s work appears in Dragon Soul Press: The Hunt, Malice, Crime Wave, Magic and Malice, Be Mine (romance), and Beautiful Darkness: Vol Three. Dragon Soul Press
Her published stories include “Isolated” in Crime Wave, about a character whose loneliness is so extreme that everyone he touches shatters like glass, and “Stay Calm” in Beautiful Darkness.
She graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in Psychology.