Josephine Catron Carson (October 9, 1946 – September 19, 2011) was an American

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes play (theatre), plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for Theatre, theatrical performance rather than just Readin ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

fiction Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying character (arts), individuals, events, or setting (narrative), places that are imagination, imaginary or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent ...

writer, and

actor An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...

, as well as the author of three children's books. Her best-known play is ''Daytrips'' (1991), and her poetry is collected in ''Stories I Ain't Told Nobody Yet'' (1989). Her story collection ''The Last of the "Waltz Across Texas"'' was published in 1993.

Biography

Carson was born in

Johnson City, Tennessee Johnson City is a city in Washington, Carter, and Sullivan counties in the U.S. state of Tennessee, mostly in Washington County. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 71,046, making it Tennessee's eighth-most populous cit ...

, in 1946 and received degrees in theater and speech from

East Tennessee State University East Tennessee State University (ETSU) is a public research university in Johnson City, Tennessee. It was historically part of the State University and Community College System of Tennessee under the Tennessee Board of Regents, but since 2016, ...

in 1973.Jo Carson (born 1946)
, The Tennessee Writers Project, The

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UT Chattanooga, UTC, or Chattanooga) is a public university in Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States. It was founded in 1886 and is part of the University of Tennessee System. History UTC was founde ...

She lived in Johnson City. Her books ''Liars, Thieves and Other Sinners on the Bench'', ''Spider Speculations: A Physics and Biophysics of Storytelling'', and ''Stories I Ain't Told Nobody Yet'' were published by Theater Communications Group. The ''Teller Tales: Histories'', from Ohio University Press, includes two stories from the

American Revolution The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...

ary period written for storytellers. The stories are particularly relevant to

East Tennessee East Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee defined in state law. Geographically and socioculturally distinct, it comprises approximately the eastern third of the U.S. state of Tennessee. East Tennessee consists of 33 coun ...

and

Western North Carolina Western North Carolina (often abbreviated as WNC) is the region of North Carolina which includes the Appalachian Mountains; it is often known geographically as the state's Mountain Region. It contains the highest mountains in the Eastern United S ...

. Carson also has a collection of short stories, ''The Last of the Waltz Across Texas'', from Gnomon Press. Her 1989 play ''Daytrips'' won the

Kesselring Prize Joseph Otto Kesselring (June 21, 1902 – November 5, 1967) was an American playwright who was best known for writing '' Arsenic and Old Lace'', a hit on Broadway from 1939 to 1944 and in other countries as well. Biography He was born in ...

in that year.Linda Frye Burnham
I Can Write a River: An interview with Jo Carson
, December 1999 ''Preacher With a Horse to Ride'' is included in the anthology ''Alternate ROOTS: Plays from the Southern Theater'' edited by Kathie deNobriga and Valetta Anderson from Heinemann Books. Her plays have been produced widely in the United States. For almost twenty years, she worked with communities to create plays made from stories collected in those communities; she may have been the most commissioned playwright in this country. Information about the community work can be found in ''Spider Speculations'' and ''Liars, Thieves''. Carson's books for children are ''Pulling My Leg'' (1990), ''You Hold Me and I'll Hold You'' (1992), and ''The Great Shaking'' (1994), all published by Orchard Books. ''The Great Shaking'' is an eyewitness account of the 1811–12 New Madrid earthquakes, as told by a fictional

bear Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family (biology), family Ursidae (). They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats ...

. She is anthologized widely. She was an occasional commentator on

NPR National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

's ''

All Things Considered ''All Things Considered'' (''ATC'') is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio (NPR). It was the first news program on NPR, premiering on May 3, 1971. It is broadcast live on NPR affiliated stations in the United ...

'' for several years. She also was a founding member of Alternate ROOTS. Carson died September 19, 2011, in Johnson City.

References

External links

Article from Virginia Tech
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carson, Jo 1946 births 2011 deaths American women writers Writers from Tennessee East Tennessee State University alumni People from Johnson City, Tennessee 21st-century American women