"There's no need to write unless you feel an urgency. I care about what's going on in the world. All writers can do is constantly remind readers and themselves that we can do better."

Joanne Meschery is the author of several award-winning novels, including In a High Place (1981), A Gentleman’s Guide to the Frontier (1990), which was the finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award, and Home and Away (Simon & Schuster, 1994) recently reprinted by the University of California Press as part of their California Writers Series. Joanne’s other awards include two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, and theWallace Stegner Fellowship from Stanford University, as well as other prizes. Before joining our faculty at SDSU, she has taught creative writing at University of Arkansas. She received her MFA degree from Iowa Writer’s Workshop.