Author and creative writing teacher Jo Ann Beard will read her nonfiction selections at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, March 17 in Yeager Recital Hall, located in the Center for the Arts on the Elon University campus. Her appearance is sponsored by the English Department and is free and open to the public.
Beard is a nonfiction author and creative writing professor at Sarah Lawrence University. Her book, “The Boys of My Youth,” is a collection of essays about her childhood in tight-knit clan. Published in February 1998, The New York Times named it a Notable Book for 1998. Barbara Fisher of the Boston Globe describes the book as “smart, funny, and moving.” Fisher also describes Beard as “a gifted and gusty writer.”
Beard is a graduate of the nonfiction writing program at the University of Iowa. She won a 1997 Whiting Foundation Award for her book, and her stories appear in several magazines, including Story, Iowa Woman, The Iowa Review and Prairie Schooner.