Fiction Writer, Poet, Playwright, Educator, Memoir Writer and Literary Critic
I am the past president of the Michigan College English Association. I have a Ph.D. in English Language and Literature from the University of Chicago. I have published four poetry books: Nature's Olympics (Wipf and Stock, 2021), Exodus (WordTech Communications, 2014), Folk Concert: Changing Times (Anaphora Literary Press, 2012) and Traffic Stop (Finishing Line Press, 2011). My scholarly book, Coleridge, Lamb, Hazlitt, and the Reader of Drama, was published in 1990 by the University of Missouri Press. My fiction picture book about bullying for children, How the Moon Regained Her Shape (Arbordale, 2006; 7th edn. 2022), has won four national awards. My play The Cell Phone won fourth place in a national contest and was performed twice at the Fenton Village Players One-Act Play Festival on June 24-25, 2011 in Fenton, Michigan. Triton College produced another play, Pledging, as part of its Tritonysia Play Festival in May 2017. Choeofpleirn Press published Pledging in Rushing Through the Dark (2022).
Doing creative writing workshops in schools, at conferences, in bookstores, and at libraries is a good way to introduce yourself and your books to the public. I have done writing workshops for children as young as 5 1/2, for teachers,…
Read more
Author Janet Heller will discuss “Common Errors in Fiction and Nonfiction Manuscripts and How to Fix Them” at the Portage District Library and comment on work submitted by workshop participants. Free event. Writers are encouraged to bring one of their…
Read more
A Review of Randall’s Wall by Carol Fenner, 1991; rpt. New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers, 1996, 85 pages This realistic novel for middle-grade children concerns an artistic boy from a poor family. Randall’s father has abused…
Read more