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Joanne Leedom-Ackerman

Joanne Leedom-Ackerman (C’68) is a novelist, short story writer, and journalist. Her works of fiction include The Dark Path to the River and No Marble Angels. Her short fiction and essays appear in a variety of books and anthologies.

A reporter for The Christian Science Monitor early in her career, Leedom-Ackerman has won awards for her nonfiction and published hundreds of articles in newspapers and magazines, ranging from World Literature Today to the Los Angeles Times.

Leedom-Ackerman is a vice president emeritus and former international secretary of PEN International as well as former chair of PEN’s International Writers in Prison Committee. Past president of PEN Center USA, she has served on the boards of numerous literary and journalistic organizations, including the International Center for Journalists and the American Writers Museum. Leedom-Ackerman is also a board member emeritus of Human Rights Watch and Save the Children and a trustee emeritus of Johns Hopkins University and Brown University.  

Leedom-Ackerman holds master’s degrees from Brown University and Johns Hopkins University and has taught writing at New York University, City University of New York, and Occidental College.