Joanne Dobson is a novelist and a scholar of American women's literature. Her six-book Professor Karen Pelletier mystery series won her an Agatha nomination and a Noted Author of the Year award from the New York State Library Association. THE KASHMIRI SHAWL is her first venture into the genre of historical fiction.Formerly a tenured professor of American Literature at Fordham University, Joanne is a specialist in Emily Dickinson and in the work of nineteenth-century American women writers. Currently she teaches in National Endowment for the Humanities and Fulbright Fellowship International summer programs at Amherst College. She also teaches Creative Writing at the Hudson Valley Writers… Center, which this autumn honors her for her multifaceted career as Scholar, Teacher, and Writer of Fiction.