Joanne Leedom-Ackerman

Joanne Leedom-Ackerman (born 1947) is an American novelist, short story writer and journalist whose fiction includes the regional bestseller The Dark Path to the River, and the short story collection No Marble Angels, She serves as a Vice President of PEN International (2015), and has served as the International Secretary of PEN International and Chair of PEN International’s Writers in Prison Committee.

Joanne Leedom-Ackerman received a BA with honors from Principia College in 1968, an MA in Creative Writing from Johns Hopkins University in 1969 and an MA in English/Creative Writing from Brown University.

Joanne Leedom-Ackerman was born Joanne Leedom on February 7, 1947 and grew up in Dallas, Texas, daughter of Joanne Shriver Leedom and John Nesbitt Leedom. Currently based in Washington, DC, Leedom-Ackerman is married to Dr. Peter Ackerman and she is the mother of Dr. Nate Ackerman, a mathematician and former Olympic wrestler and Elliot Ackerman, author and novelist and a decorated former US Marines captain.

Leedom-Ackerman's fiction and literary nonfiction work includes The Dark Path to the River, No Marble Angels, and stories and essays in 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, and What You Can Do.

Both Leedom-Ackerman’s fiction and her nonfiction focus on international affairs and conflicts.

A former reporter for The Christian Science Monitor, Leedom-Ackerman’s career now includes work with organizations that serve writers and focus on issues of freedom of expression and human rights as well as on conflict resolution, education, development and refugee issues.

A Vice President of PEN International, she is the former International Secretary (2004-2007) and former Chair of their Writers in Prison Committee (1993-1997). Past president of PEN Center USA, she has served on the board and as Vice President of PEN American Center, and currently serves on the boards of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation,Poets & Writers, the International Center for Journalists, the International Crisis Group, Refugees International and Words Without Borders and is a member of the ICRW Leadership Council..

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