Jo Ann Beard (born 1955) is an American essayist.
Life Beard was born in 1955 in Moline, Illinois. She graduated from the University of Iowa with a BFA degree in art, and from the Nonfiction Writing Program with an MFA in creative nonfiction. She teaches at Sarah Lawrence College.
Beard previously worked as a managing editor for a physics journal at the University of Iowa, and was a colleague of the victims of the University of Iowa shooting, which became a subject for her work.
Her writing has appeared in literary journals and magazines including The New Yorker, Tin House and O, The Oprah Magazine.
Recognition Awards 1997: Whiting Award 2005: Guggenheim Fellow
Honours 2024: Royal Society of Literature International Writer
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
Anthology contributions
References
External links "Meet a rare creature: the wholly talented, wholly modest Jo Ann Beard", Book Page, February 1998 "A Conversation with Jo Ann Beard", nidus, No. 3 Fall 2002. "Jo Ann Beard Interviewed by Michael Gardner", Mary Literary Journal Profile at The Whiting Foundation "The Essay That Made Jo Ann Beard Want to Write Nonfiction", The New York Times, March 11, 2021.