Janet Ruth Heller – Page 111 – Fiction Writer, Poet, Playwright, Educator, Memoir Writer and Literary Critic

Two New One-Act Plays by by Award-Winning Playwright Jordan Tannahill in Toronto

Post author:Janet Ruth Heller
Post published:May 10, 2016
Post category:Literature Theater Reviews

Botticelli in the Fire and Sunday in Sodom, two one-act plays by Jordan Tannahill in their world premieres, are currently being performed by Canadian Stage at the Berkeley Street Theatre in Toronto. Tannahill has won the Governor General’s Award. Both new plays are modern retellings. Botticelli in the Fire focuses on a segment of the life of the Italian Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli. Sunday in Sodom retells the story of Lot’s wife in Genesis. The Berkeley Street Theatre is a small theater in a remodeled factory building. (more…)

Front Cover for The Passover Surprise, Janet Ruth Heller's chapter book. The artwork is by Ronald Kauffman.

Review of Janet Ruth Heller’s book The Passover Surprise by Melissa Sweeney in Baltimore’s Child

Post author:Janet Ruth Heller
Post published:April 15, 2016
Post category:Book Review Books Fiction Historical Fiction Jewish Families Jewish Traditions Literature Reviews Sibling Rivalry

Dear Friends,

The review below of my chapter book for middle-grade children, The Passover Surprise, appeared in Baltimore’s Child on April 11, 2016. Best wishes for the spring! Janet

“The Passover Surprise”

Passover is just around the corner and author Janet Ruth Heller brings a timely story in The Passover Surprise. Calling on Heller’s own childhood experiences, The Passover Surprise tells the tale of a girl named Lisa as she competes with her brother Jon in a stamp collecting competition. Lisa’s father deems her brother the winner of the competition based partly on the ideas that stamp collecting is more of a boy’s hobby than a girl’s. As Lisa prepares to talk to her father about her feelings, she is also preparing for Passover. (more…)

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I love books by British writers P. D. James, Seamus Heaney, S. T. Coleridge, Jane Austen, William Wordsworth, Robert Browning, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, George Eliot, W. B. Yeats;

American writers Judy Blume, Edna St. Vincent Millay, T. S. Eliot, Maxine Kumin, Jim Daniels, Mong-Lan, Robert Hayden, Langston Hughes, Naomi Shihab Nye, Alberto Ríos, Gail B. Griffin, Jerry Spinelli, Jane Yolen, Kathryn Erskine, Gary D. Schmidt, Adrienne Rich, Judith Minty, Gwendolyn Brooks, Marge Piercy, Grace Paley, Alicia Ostriker, Jaimy Gordon; South African writer Athol Fugard;

Israeli writers Chaim Nachman Bialik, Yehudah Amichai, Rachel Bluwstein, Chaim Guri, S. Y. Agnon; and Hispanic writers Sor Juana, Federico García Lorca, Ruben Darío, Antonio Machado, Jorge Guillén, Pedro Salinas, and Dámaso Alonso.

I also love Japanese haiku, especially those by Matsuo Bashō.

My writing has been influenced by many other authors, including British writers Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Jane Austen, William Wordsworth, Robert Browning, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, George Eliot, W. B. Yeats;

American writers Edna St. Vincent Millay, T. S. Eliot, Maxine Kumin, Adrienne Rich, Judith Minty, Gwendolyn Brooks;

Israeli writers Chaim Nachman Bialik, Yehudah Amichai, Rachel Bluwstein, Chaim Guri, S. Y. Agnon, and Hispanic writers Sor Juana, Federico Garcia Lorca, Ruben Dario, Antonio Machado, Jorge Guillen, Pedro Salinas, and Damaso Alonso.