Jo Ann Beard is an American

essayist An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal a ...

Life

Beard was born in 1955, Moline, Illinois. She graduated from the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is org ...

with a BFA in art, and from The Nonfiction Writing Program with an MFA in

creative nonfiction Creative nonfiction (also known as literary nonfiction or narrative nonfiction or literary journalism or verfabula) is a genre of writing that uses literary styles and techniques to create factually accurate narratives. Creative nonfiction contra ...

. She teaches at

Sarah Lawrence College Sarah Lawrence College is a Private university, private liberal arts college in Yonkers, New York. The college models its approach to education after the Supervision system, Oxford/Cambridge system of one-on-one student-faculty tutorials. Sara ...

. Beard previously worked as a managing editor for a physics journal at the

, and was a colleague of the victims of the

University of Iowa shooting The University of Iowa shooting was a mass shooting that occurred in Iowa City, Iowa, on November 1, 1991. Gang Lu, a 28-year-old former graduate student at the University of Iowa, killed three members of the Physics and Astronomy Department facul ...

, which became a subject for her work. Her writing has appeared in literary journals and magazines.

Awards

* 1997

Whiting Award The Whiting Award is an American award presented annually to ten emerging writers in fiction, nonfiction, poetry and plays. The award is sponsored by the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation Mrs. (American English) or Mrs (British English; standard E ...

* 2005

Guggenheim Fellow Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

Works

Essays

"The Fourth State of Matter"
''The New Yorker'', June 24, 1996 *"Undertaker, Please Drive Slow," ''Tin House'', Issue #12, Summer 2002
"Maybe It Happened"
''O, The Oprah Magazine'', August 2008
"The Longest Night: Saying Goodbye to My Beloved Pet"
''O, The Oprah Magazine'', June 2009

Books

* * *

Anthologies

* * * *

References

External links

''Book Page'', February 1998

''nidus'', No. 3 Fall 2002.

''Mary Literary Journal''
Profile at The Whiting Foundation
*https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/11/books/review/jo-ann-beard-by-the-book-interview.html American essayists University of Iowa alumni Sarah Lawrence College faculty Living people 1955 births O. Henry Award winners {{US-essayist-stub