Joan DelFattore (born 1946) is a professor emerita of English and legal studies at the University of Delaware.
She is known for her advocacy of academic freedom[1] and for her 1992 book What Johnny Shouldn't Read: Textbook Censorship in America; the book won the American Library Association's Eli M. Oboler Memorial Award (which is awarded for "the best published work in the area of intellectual freedom" ).
[2] In 2014, she became professor emerita and established a program called "Writing as Healing" at Delaware's Christiana Care Health System.
She relied on her network of friends and extended family to help her as she underwent surgery at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
[7] In recent years, DelFattore has held an appointment as a scholar in residence at the New York Public Library.
She is an active member of PEN America,[2] the Cosmos Club, the Wilmington, Delaware Rotary Club of Rotary International, the International Women's Forum, the New York chapter of the Mystery Writers of America, and the Authors Guild,.