Career
She wrote the book-length family memoir The Tender Land (Houghton-Mifflin, 2000). She teaches at Washington University and was a guest professor at the University of Missouri-Saint Louis, where she led workshops on memoir and personal essay. On May 17, 2010, Kathleen Finneran awarded Christopher Bachmann and Tony Minnick from Saint Louis University High School, an award for exemplary and outstanding literary work.