Joanne Leedom-Ackerman

Joanne Leedom-Ackerman is a novelist, short story writer, and journalist. Her book PEN Journeys: Memoir of Literature on the Line was published in February 2022. Her works of fiction include The Dark Path to the River and No Marble Angels, and her novels Burning Distance and The Far Side of the Desert will be published in 2023 and 2024.  She has also published fiction and essays in books and anthologies and is the editor of The Journey of Liu Xiaobo: From Dark Horse to Nobel Laureate. A former reporter for The Christian Science Monitor, Joanne is Vice President emeritus of PEN International, where she has served as International Secretary and Chair of PEN International’s Writers in Prison Committee. She serves on the board of the American Writers Museum, Words Without Borders, the International Center for Journalists, and Refugees International, and is former board member of Save the Children and an emeritus board member of the PEN Faulkner Foundation, Human Rights Watch, Poets and Writers, Johns Hopkins University, and Brown University.