Jim Bay wrote his first short story, Jim Fled the Cuckoo's Nest while a patient in a psychiatric hospital following a mental breakdown. Prior to being sectioned under the Mental Health Act he was a film and video artist of some repute. He was writing prolifically during this time but utilised his notes for research purposes only. Towards the end of his period as a filmmaker he had begun to script his films and employ actors and crew members. Over time these scripts became longer until what was then known as Cul de Sac Cull (2004) became a full length novel. It took Jim two years to write and it was shortly after its completion that he fell in to a long period of severe clinical depression. Jim's recovery was slow and after a numerous years in psychotherapy he deemed his former creative pursuits as being bad for his health but found that writing, his one creative constant, was not only therapeutic, but allowed him a freedom he had never experienced before. He sold off his film and video equipment, bought a victorian desk, a 60s chair, 70s lamp and a noughties laptop and declared himself to be a writer. Jim now spends his time writing prose, producing book works and creating a din with his indie-noise outfit The Short Stories. Occasionally accompanying Jim at readings, the line up is always in flux and de-tuned.  

Jim is also a critical writer on contemporary art and is in the midst of a PhD (Fiction, Narration and the Dispersed Narrative in Artists Film and Video)