advice for writers – Page 9 – Janet Ruth Heller

Why Reluctant Students Need to Learn Grammar

Post author:Janet Ruth Heller
Post published:July 17, 2017
Post category:Advice for Students Advice for Writers Education Grammar Humanities Language

Although some students do not like learning grammar, I feel strongly that they will have better control and confidence as writers if they know some basic grammar and grammatical terms. Teachers and professors cannot explain fragments and run-on sentences to classes if students do not know what subjects and verbs are. If it is OK to teach students mathematical and scientific terminology, why is it a sin to teach students grammar terminology? I had public school teachers who insisted that their classes learn grammar well, and that helped me a lot when I learned Spanish and linguistics. As a college professor and writer who has published six books, I rely on my knowledge of grammar every day of my life. (more…)

Advice for Writers about Manuscript Submissions and Book Publishing

Post author:Janet Ruth Heller
Post published:May 24, 2017
Post category:Advice for Writers Books Children's Literature Editing Manuscripts Fiction Interviews Literature Picture Book Publishing Industry Publishing Manuscripts

Mindy McGinnis interviewed me about my books and advice for writers for her website Writer Writer Pants on Fire. Here is the interview, which was posted on May 23, 2017. Janet Ruth Heller on Querying Publishers Today's guest for the SAT (Successful Author Talk) is Janet Ruth Heller. Janet is a poet, literary critic, college professor, essayist, playwright, and fiction writer. She is a past president of the Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature, and is currently president of the Michigan College English Association. She has a Ph.D. in English Language and Literature from the University of Chicago, and has published three books of poetry: Exodus (WordTech Communications, 2014), Folk Concert: Changing Times (Anaphora Literary Press, 2012), and Traffic Stop (Finishing Line Press, 2011). She is the founding mother and former editor of Primavera, a literary magazine. Primavera has won awards from Chicago Women in Publishing and the Illinois Arts Council and grants from the Coordinating Council of Literary Magazines and the National Endowment for the Arts. Primavera was among the first journals to…

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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.