I am Joan (nee Walters) Keele Zumwalt. I spent my early years on a ranch near New Castle, Colorado, riding  horseback to one-room schools. In 1959 I graduated from McPherson College, McPherson, Kansas, later earning my MA and MFA.

For ten years I taught troubled children at the Colorado State Hospital, and after living in Mexico, I taught at three Arizona colleges. I feel blessed to have lived in five states and traveled to over fifty countries and forty-eight states.

In addition to academic work, my life has been occupied with raising two daughters, doing volunteer work for Habitat for Humanity and our local library, remodeling houses and writing. I now live in southern Oregon with my husband Mark and our newest best friend, Dood.