About Joan

Joan O’Callaghan was born in Toronto, but grew up in Brantford, Ontario.  She graduated from the University of Western Ontario with an Honours B.A. in English Language and Literature.  She then attended York University where she earned an M.A. in English Literature, and then a B.Ed. from the University of Toronto.

Joan has been an English teacher and department head at schools in both the Halton and York Region Boards of Education, and also served for eight years as Manager of Promotional and Educational Services for the Canadian Daily Newspaper Publishers Association.

She is the author of three books, two published by Scholastic Canada and one by Rubicon (Harcourt).  Her short stories have been published in Excerpt Flight Deck (2012) and the crime anthology, Thirteen, published in 2013.  More recently, her short story, “Runaway,” took third prize in the national Bony Pete short story contest and has been published in World Enough and Crime (2014). Her Flash Fiction story, “Torch Song for Two Voices” won first prize in a national competition, and was subsequently published in That Golden Summer (Polar Expressions Publishing, 2014).