About

I was born and raised in the Midwest, but I found my sense of self during a long stint in Southern California. Now I live with my family (and maybe a ghost or two) in a one-hundred-year-old house in St. Louis, Missouri, a stone’s throw from the Arch. 

Over the past ten years, I have worked as a writing coach, college writing instructor, assistant director of a university writing center, and dissertation editor. I have developed and taught writing courses across disciplines, including creative writing, freshman composition, and business writing. I have also designed and taught a variety of writing skills workshops to support academic and creative writers as they brainstorm ideas, conduct research, develop outlines, construct powerful sentences, revise, edit, and proofread. During my graduate studies, I served as an intern and reader for The Missouri Review and as an editorial assistant for Natural Bridge (now part of Boulevard). Currently, I coach graduate students as they write their theses and dissertations and work as a freelance editor for both creative and academic writers—all while also staying at home to raise two little ones. 

I have a B.A. in English from Concordia University Irvine, an M.A. in literature with an emphasis in rhetoric and composition from the University of Missouri-Columbia, and an M.F.A. in fiction from the University of Missouri-St. Louis, where I was awarded the Mary Troy Prize for Fiction. 

My work has been published in Bone ParadeFauxmoirPeatsmoke, and elsewhere. My story “Insomnia,” published in an anthology from Alternating Current Press, was nominated for Best Microfiction 2023, and my story “Acts of Creation” won the PEN/Robert J. Dau Prize for Emerging Writers. I’m currently working on a collection of fabulist short stories that explore the strange and surreal realm of motherhood.  

To read Jo’s writing, click here!

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