Jan Beatty is the author of seven books, including the memoir American Bastard (Red Hen Press, 2021), which received the Red Hen Nonfiction Award, and Jackknife: New and Selected Poems (Pitt Poetry Series, 2017), which received the 2018 Paterson Poetry Prize. She has worked as a waitress, a welfare caseworker, an abortion counselor, and in maximum-security prisons. (updated 4/2022)