Joan Joffe Hall

Joan Joffe Hall was an American poet, fiction writer, and pioneering academic who became the first woman hired for a tenure-track position in the English Department at the University of Connecticut in 1963, where she helped establish the women's studies, creative writing, and film study programs.[1][2] A tireless advocate for women's rights, she authored several poetry collections including In Angled Light (2004) and Romance and Capitalism at the Movies (1985), and mentored notable writers like Bobbie Ann Mason and Wally Lamb.[1] Born in Brooklyn, New York, to Louis and Leah Joffe, she wrote her first poem at age four, graduated from Vassar at sixteen, earned a PhD from Stanford at 21, and died at home in 2013 after battling cancer for 17 years.[1]