About Joanna
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On the strength of reports from that trip, and a later one to China where I was hired to write the biography of Dr. C.P. Li, an early and lifetime friend of Mao Zedong, I was invited into the Society of Woman Geographers. The Society, which celebrated its centennial in 2025, was founded by women explorers who were excluded from men’s organizations.
As I returned to California and my own explorations turned into words, I became a journalist, essayist, poet, novelist, travel writer, and wrote the second of my trilogy, Melanie’s Song. My work has appeared in hundreds of publications including The Washington Post Magazine, Psychology Today, The International Herald Tribune, and the Wall Street Journal. As a co-founder and editor of the award-winning series of “Wandering in…” anthologies, I’ve traveled in, taught in and written about Costa Rica, Bali, Paris, Cornwall, Andalusia, Cuba, Greece, and American Deserts.
My ventures in fiction and teaching have continued, too. With the completion of To End All Wars, I have finished the French House Trilogy, and have completed twenty years of teaching and serving on the board of directors at the Emiliano Zapata Street Academy, a public alternative high school in Oakland, California.