ABOUT ANN ZUCCARDY

A fall in a German bathtub in 2011 dramatically changed my life. The brain injury I sustained forced me to reinvent myself when all that I identified with professionally was lost. 

During my recovery, I gave 2 TEDx talks, How a Brain Injury Made Me Smarter and How Being Unsafe Makes You Smarter, multiple keynote speeches (one even received a standing ovation!), took a humanitarian trip to Haiti, earned a master's degree in English, and began teaching at the college level.

I am a full time technical writer in the DoD (U.S. Department of Defense), creative nonfiction author, keynote speaker, and adjunct writing instructor who loves to talk about brain injury, resilience and reinvention, humor, play, and why everyone needs to love the Oxford comma. 

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I am a lifelong writer with experience in editing, technology, social media marketing, copywriting, feature articles, annual reports, and electronic newsletters. However, memoir and creative nonfiction make my heart sing loudest. 

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My writing and photography have been featured by Adelaide Literary Magazine (2019), Press Pause Moments: Essays about Life Transitions by Women Writers (2009), In Between Spaces: An Anthology of Disabled Writers (2022), Baltimore Fishbowl (2022), Brain Injury Alliance of Arizona, Vermont Chamber of Commerce Winter Guide (2008), Country Home Products (2001), Brain Injury Journey Magazine (2013), University of Vermont Medical Center (2016), and more. 

In 2022, I was accepted into the Creative Writing and Publishing Arts MFA program at University of Baltimore, where I worked as a creative nonfiction editor for the university's literary magazine, Welter, and where I study memoir.