Jo Ann Beard

Jo Ann Beard is an American essayist.

Life
Beard was born in 1955 in Moline, Illinois. She graduated from the University of Iowa with a BFA 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.

Awards

 * 1997 Whiting Award
 * 2005 Guggenheim Fellow

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