Jo McDougall's fourth book of poetry, Dirt, was published by Autumn House Press, Pittsburgh (July 2001). Other poetry collections include Towns Facing Railroads, From Darkening Porches , University of Arkansas Press; and The Woman in the Next Booth, BkMk Press , University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Emerson County Shaping Dream, a short dramatic film scripted by her poems, was co-produced by McDougall and director Don Maxwell and released in April 2001. She has co-produced and provided text for a multi-media theater piece, Towns Facing Railroads, and an artist's exhibit and book, A Very Fine House.

Among her awards are a DeWitt Wallace/Reader's Digest Award, an Academy of American Poets Award, MacDowell Colony fellowships, and Arkansas's Porter Fund Literary Prize.

Her poems have appeared in the Kenyon Review, The Hudson Review, The New Orleans Review, and others, and in numerous anthologies. She was Co-Director of the Creative Writing Program at Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, Kansas.