Jo Carson

Jo Carson is the author of seven books including Stories I Ain’t Told Nobody Yet which is taught widely in Appalachian Literature courses. TCG has recently published Spider Speculations: A Physics and Biophysics of Storytelling, which considers how stories work in our bodies and our lives. Liars, Thieves, and Other Sinners on the Bench is a collection of Jo’s favorite material from the community story plays she has written. Liars, Thieves… is also performance material for Jo. She has won five national awards for her traditional plays (including the Kesselring Prize for Daytrips) and these plays have been produced widely this country, including Hartford Stage Company, the Women’s Project in NYC and the Los Angeles Theatre Center. Jo has also written more than 30 plays for a variety of communities in this country over the last 15 years. Jo teaches playwriting at East Tennessee State University, and teaches the how-to’s of story collecting and writing for communities across the country. She lives and writes in Johnson City, Tennessee.