Blog

Janet Ruth Heller Reads Poetry about Families and Discusses Her Book The Passover Surprise at the Writing the Midwest Conference on June 2, 2016

On Thursday, June 2, 2016, Janet Heller will be reading her poetry about families, discussing her children’s book The Passover Surprise (Fictive Press, 2015), and autographing her books at Writing the Midwest, the annual conference of the Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature, in the Kellogg Hotel & Conference Center at Michigan State University, 219 S. Harrison Rd. in East Lansing, MI 48823.  Janet will discuss The Passover Surprise, a middle-grade chapter book, on Thursday, June 2 from 2:15 p.m. to 3:45 p.m. Her paper title is “The Portrayal of Jewish Culture and Family Structure in The Passover Surprise.”  Also, she will read “‘Family Reunions,’ ‘Inheritance,’ ‘Mother-in-Law on the Phone,’ and Other Poems” on Thursday June 2 from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.  Her books include the award-winning children’s book about bullying How the Moon Regained Her Shape (Arbordale, 2006; rpt. 2012), her poetry books Traffic Stop (Finishing Line Press, 2011), Folk Concert: Changing Times (Anaphora Literary Press, 2012), and Exodus (WordTech Editions, 2014); and her book of literary criticism Coleridge, Lamb, Hazlitt, and the Reader of Drama (University of Missouri Press, 1990).  The conference website is www.ssml.org/symposium  The phone number of the Kellogg Center is (517) 432-4000.

front cover for Passover Surprise

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Janet Ruth Heller

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).