Joy runs Grey Hen Press, and edits and publishes anthologies featuring poetry by older women. These have proved popular both with contributors and poetry lovers, and with readings taking place across the UK, there has been much fun and camaraderie involved. (Grey Hen Press). She also runs an annual competition for women poets over 60.
 
Joy has been writing poetry for over 40 years, but dropped out of the poetry world for a good decade while work took over. Following retirement, and with access to the internet opening up the world of poetry magazines and competitions, Joy began to think about submitting work again. Now well into her 70s, she has done this less often than would be useful because timescales are so long, and rules about simultaneous submission so strict. It can be immobilising for someone who feels they are running out of time. Knowing she wouldn’t be the only one in this particular boat, and that there is plenty of talent out there was the rationale for setting up Grey Hen.
 
Joy has also an imprint of Grey Hen Press under which, as a jointly funded venture,she publishes occasional chapbooks. This is Hen Run, and the aim is both to offer an opportunity to established poets to have a one-off sequence published separately from their main collections, and to offer women over 60 the chance of a first publication.
 
Widely published in magazines and anthologies, she has three single collections:
 
Exit Moonshine (Grey Hen Press 2009), Refurbishment (Ward Wood 2011) and Foraging (Arachne Press 2017).
 
Grey Hen anthologies:
 
     Out of Context (2019)
     Further Than It Looks (2019)
     Vaster than Empires (2018)
     Songs for the Unsung (2017)
     Extraordinary Forms: some wonders of the natural world (2016)
     Running Before the Wind: poems about the sea (2013)
     The Price of Gold: poems about the honey bee (2012)
     Get Me Out of Here!: poems for trying circumstances (2011)
     No Space But Their Own: new poems about birds ( 2010)
     Cracking On: poems on ageing by older women (2009)
     A Twist of Malice; uncomfortable poems by older women (2008)
 
Pamphlet – A Source of Strange Delight: poems about the Brontës.
 
Chapbook series – Transitions: poems about the seasons, Outlook Variable: poems about the weather and Shades of Meaning: poems about colours (2014).