After she retired, it took just one inspir­ing writ­ing work­shop to launch Joanne Jago­da on an unex­pect­ed cre­ative writ­ing tra­jec­to­ry. Though she start­ed late, writ­ing became her pas­sion. Her prize-win­ning poet­ry, cre­ative non-fic­tion and short sto­ries appear on-line and in more than six­ty print antholo­gies includ­ing Voic­es for Israel, The Deron­da Press, A Poet’s Sid­dur, Poet­i­ca, and Per­sim­mon Tree. She has received three Push­cart nom­i­na­tions, and first place in the Gem­i­ni Open poet­ry com­pe­ti­tion. Joanne has tak­en many craft class­es, par­tic­i­pates in three week­ly writ­ing work­shops and has col­lab­o­rat­ed with sev­er­al notable Bay Area poets.

Joanne’s book, My Run­away Hour­glass, (joan​ne​jago​da​.com), was pub­lished in 2020. She has sev­er­al new chap­books forth­com­ing in 2026. Joanne lived in Oak­land Cal­i­for­nia for many years where she was a leader in the Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty includ­ing serv­ing as the first woman pres­i­dent of her Ortho­dox syn­a­gogue. She relo­cat­ed recent­ly to a vibrant retire­ment com­mu­ni­ty in Wal­nut Creek where she goes tap­danc­ing. Her sev­en grand­chil­dren call her Savta.