about joanna

Often working at the intersection of genres, Joanna Penn Cooper is the author of three full-length collections of poetry and lyric prose, The Itinerant Girl’s Guide to Self-Hypnosis (Brooklyn Arts Press), What Is a Domicile (Noctuary Press), and Crown (Ravenna Press, winner of the Cathlamet Prize). The collections were well-received, garnering positive reviews from national sources.  According to the Poetry Foundation blog, "If you seek innovative poetry that engages with motherhood, [What Is a Domicile] is a must-read," and American Microreviews and Interviews compared the speaker of Itinerant Girl to “a contemporary Scout Finch . . . self-aware and defiant.” 

Joanna’s poetry, flash, and lyric essays have appeared in South Dakota Review, On the Seawall, Short Reads, Poetry International, Vinyl Poetry and Prose, The Tiny, Opium, Image, and The Academy of American Poets Poem-a-Day feature, among other places. Joanna is also the author of several chapbooks. Her most recent chapbooks are Wild Apples: A Flash Memoir Collection with Writing Prompts and Celebrity Ghost: Comics, both from Ethel Zine and Micro-Press. An enthusiastic collaborator with other artists, Joanna also co-authored the collections  I’m Glad I Know You with Todd Colby (Poetry Crush); Mud Woman, with Rebecca Bratten Weiss (Dancing Girl Press); and Comfort Event again with Todd Colby (Ethel). 

Her essay “Battles” was a finalist for Tupelo Quarterly’s 2017 Prose Open Contest. Other honors include residencies at the Vermont Studio Center and the Bishop-Bulmer House in Great Village, Nova Scotia. Her current manuscript When We Were Fearsome was a finalist for the River River Books Open Reading Period in 2023 and a finalist for the Tenth Gate Prize for Mid-Career Poets from Word Works Press in 2020 . She has served as an editor at Trio House Press and is currently editor-at-large for Ethel Zine and Micro-Press. Joanna’s scholarly work has appeared in MELUS (the Journal of the Society for the Study of Multi-Ethnic Literature of the U.S.) and in the anthology A Sense of Regard: Essays on Poetry and Race (University of Georgia Press).

With roots in North Carolina, Joanna was born in Lawrence, Kansas and grew up in locations in the Southeast and Midwest, also living in W. Germany from the ages of 11-16. Joanna attended the University of Kansas for a B.A. in English and Women’s Studies, as well as an M.A. in English; Temple University for a Ph.D. in English (focusing on 19th and 20th century multi-ethnic American literature); and New England College for an MFA in Poetry.

Joanna has held positions as a Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow at Fordham University and as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Marquette University. She currently lives in Durham, North Carolina with an impish child and a cat named Oz, and she teaches creative writing and provides editing services through her business Muse Writing & Creative Support. Joanna has also taught workshops for Just Buffalo Literary Center and the Creative Nonfiction Foundation, and she currently teaches through writers.com and as an adjunct faculty member at Meredith College.

short bio

Joanna Penn Cooper is the author of a book of lyrical prose vignettes, The Itinerant Girl’s Guide to Self-Hypnosis (Brooklyn Arts Press); the poetry books What Is a Domicile (Noctuary Press) and Crown (Ravenna Press, winner of the Cathlamet Prize); and several chapbooks, including Wild Apples: A Flash Memoir Collection with Writing Prompts and Celebrity Ghost: Comics, both from Ethel Zine & Micro-Press. Joanna offers online writing workshops through her business, Muse Writing & Creative Support. Find her on Substack at Muse with JPC.