Joy Riggs is the author of Crackerjack Bands and Hometown Boosters: The Story of a Minnesota Music Man (Nodin Press 2019), a book of memoir and biography about how music connects people across generations.
Her essays have appeared in numerous publications including Months to Years, Catamaran Literary Reader, Hippocampus Magazine, The Manifest-Station, HerStry, and the Minnesota Star Tribune. She lives in Northfield, Minnesota, where she writes about history, travel, caregiving, and other mid-life adventures. She is working on a collection of essays she’s written over the past two decades.
Joy grew up in Alexandria, Minnesota, and graduated from Drake University in Des Moines with a bachelor's degree in news-editorial journalism. She spent several years as a newspaper reporter before becoming a freelance writer and editor, and she won multiple awards for her tween/teen column in Minnesota Parent magazine.
Photo credit: Chelsey Headrick