Joanne Leedom-Ackerman

Joanne Leedom-Ackerman is a novelist, short story writer, and journalist. Her works of fiction include The Dark Path to the River and No Marble Angels. She has also published fiction and essays in books and anthologies, including Short Stories of the Civil Rights Movement; Remembering Arthur Miller; Electric Grace; Snakes: An Anthology of Serpent Tales; Beyond Literacy; Women For All Seasons; Fiction and Poetry by Texas Women; The Bicentennial Collection of Texas Short Stories; What You Can Do.

As a reporter for The Christian Science Monitor early in her career, Joanne won awards for her nonfiction and has published hundreds of articles in newspapers and magazines. She has taught writing at New York University, City University of New York, Occidental College and the University of California at Los Angeles extension. She holds Master of Arts degrees from Brown University and Johns Hopkins University and graduated cum laude from Principia College.

Joanne is a Vice President of International PEN and the former International Secretary of International PEN and former Chair of International PEN’s Writers in Prison Committee. Past president of PEN Center USA, she currently serves on the boards of PEN American Center, the PEN/Faulkner Foundation, Poets and Writers, the International Center for Journalists, Human Rights Watch, and the International Crisis Group. She is also a member of the Board of Trustees of Johns Hopkins University and a trustee emeritus of Brown University. She has served on the Board of Trustees of Save the Children and serves on Save the Children's Advisory Board on Early Childhood Education.