Writer. Dancer. Teacher.
My Story
I have spent most of my adult life traveling, teaching and studying places geographically and culturally foreign to my hometown of Erie, Pennsylvania. After retiring from a career as a professional Irish Step dancer, I taught English and Dance in Chicago Public Schools before residing for ten years in Ghana, West Africa, then the U.S. and British Virgin Islands. Uprooted by Hurricane Irma in September 2017, my husband and I bounced around the US before recently relocating to Honolulu, Hawaii. Much of my life work, whether in teaching, performance or in writing, has sought to bridge gaps in intercultural understanding to engender in my fellow humans compassion for one another and for their environment. I am a Cum Laude Honors graduate of Loyola University with a B.A. in English Literature, and an M.A. in Interdisciplinary Arts from Columbia College Chicago.
reviews
"If you’re looking for a gripping tale that captures the grim realities of human-caused climate change, you need not look to Hollywood’s depictions of possible dystopian futures. In Irma Was Here, Diandra Jones provides us with her own harrowing account of what it’s like to experience a direct strike by a monster hurricane supercharged by global warming.”
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MICHAEL MANN, Director of Penn State Earth System Science Center and author of "The Madhouse Effect: How Climate Change Denial is Threatening Our Planet, Destroying Our Politics, and Driving Us Crazy."
what readers are saying
I started reading this out of passing curiosity, but I couldn't put it down. Living on the other side of the world, this event was just a distant headline in the paper and a passing chyron.This was beautifully written, not just feeling like living through the event, but living the beauty of the island and culture that was being ripped apart. - Christopher D.