Joanne Diaz grew up in Billerica, Massachusetts. She received her BA from Tufts University; her MFA from New York University, where she was a New York Times fellow; and her PhD in English literature from Northwestern University, where she wrote a dissertation that focused on English Renaissance complaint poetry. She is the recipient of writing fellowships from the Illinois Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts. She is an assistant professor in the English department at Illinois Wesleyan University.
