JoAnn Lord Koff is an artist living in Northern Virginia.  She was raised in Charny, France, and moved around the United States as a girl, which has infused her creativity with worldliness and natural empathy for people and nature.  She attended Lynchburg College where she majored in English and then taught English and Writing in High School. Her love of history, her passion for the arts, and her taste for originality are clearly depicted in her first book, Sand, Pebbles, Fossils, and Rocks, which is a culmination of decades of poetry she has written and captivating photography she has taken from all around the world. JoAnn has been a photographer and a poet for over forty years. She has adjudicated the Poetry Out Loud and Off the Wall poetry competitions.  In January 2020, she had a solo gallery show for three weeks entitled:  Camera Eyes: On Poetry, which cultivated a visceral connection between JoAnn’s breathtaking twenty-seven original photographs and the heartfelt vision within twenty-five of her poems. Her book was nominated for the Library of Virginia’s Literary Award in Poetry in 2019. In mixing the two mediums, JoAnn connected what is a truism:  in our fast-paced world fractured by immediate communication, there exists a symbiotic relationship between words and images. Each is powerful and each can change the world.  Often, they are interchangeable. Photography is an instantaneous art, which can rarely be duplicated while a poem, on the other hand, ferments and often requires time for rewriting.  Both art forms, photography, and poetry rely on instinct and command an emotional response, which is spontaneous and potent.   As an American woman living in a global world community, JoAnn believes we need to develop unbound by any and all shackles, insecurities, prejudices, or margins, so we may each reach our full potentials.   By making ourselves better, we make the world better.  Art is the umbilical cord that connects each of us.

ACCOLADES

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“The King Cobra,” published in A Different Drummer, 1977.

“The Charioteers,” published in the poetry anthology Holding onto Forever, 2001.

“Mrs.,” published in the poetry anthology Preserving the Past, 2002.

“International Poet of Merit Award,” for “Mrs.,” by The International Society of Poets, 2002.

“Iris Dancing” placed 14th and “ Illuminations on Ocracoke Ferry” placed 30th in the Writer’s Digest Annual Writing Competition, 2002.

“Santorini Dreaming” and “Skipping Rocks” awarded ‘Honorable Mention’ in the Writer’s Digest Annual Writing Competition, 2003.

Sand, Pebbles, Fossils, and Rocks is displayed in the ‘Published Authors’ section in Carnegie Hall, at the University of Lynchburg, 2018.

University of Lynchburg Magazine – 2018-2020, printed biannual updates.

Sand, Pebbles, Fossils, and Rocks is nominated for the Library of Virginia’s Literary Award in Poetry in 2019.

U-Tube Video - “On the Lawn by the White House,” “When I was Five,” and “In the Dead Zone,” recited at the opening of Camera Eyes: On Poetry, January 15, 2020.  Videos of these recitations were posted on my website (www.joannlordkoff.com), LinkedIn, and the Facebook page for my book, Sand, Pebbles, Fossils, and Rocks.

Opening Night Reception, January 18, 2020, Camera Eyes: On Poetry, University of Lynchburg sent a college official, to represent the University and to photograph the event.

March 2020 - Virginia Bards:  Prince William County Poetry Review 2020,  published “Candy Corn Calligraphy” and  “My Friends Remind Me.”

March 2020 - Northern Virginia Poetry Collection published “Santorini Dreaming,” “Skipping Rocks,” and “Illuminations on Ocracoke Ferry.”

March 2020 - video recitation of “Mrs.” and “When I was “Five” was posted on International Poetry Circle’s Twitter.

Inaugural woman alumna selected as University of Lynchburg’s Alum of the Week, April 2020.

May 2020 - invited by the University of Lynchburg to bring, Camera Eyes: On Poetry, to the Daura Gallery, Fall 2020. (update:  cancelled due to coronavirus).

May 2020 - Gargoyle Magazine accepted “A Target on Your Back” for publication in May 2021.

June 3, 2020 - invited to present a photography workshop for Prince William Photography Club using my photography from Camera Eyes: On Poetry. (update:  cancelled due to coronavirus).

June 2020 - Nominated for Poet Laureate of Prince William County.

August 2020 - Black Bough Poetry accepted “So” and “Spring Mountain” for Rapture.

October 2020 - accepted into Poet Laureate Circle in Prince William County.

November 2020 - “120 Species of Wuhan Market” published In the Midst: A COVID-19 Anthology.

January 2021 - Green Ink Poetry published “Aeolus” and “White Cube.”

February 2021 - ART4US  International Juried Art Show accepted “Moonlit,” a black and white photograph as a finalist for their Gallery B show.