Friday, September 12, 2025

Writer Spotlight: Janet Ruth Heller

 

Bullies, Surprise, FTA, U of Chicago, midrashim, and Isle Royale: Poet and author Janet Ruth Heller

Charlie Barshaw coordinates our regular Writer Spotlight feature and interviews writers of SCBWI-MI. In this piece, meet poet , educator and author Janet Ruth Heller.

What has changed since we completed your interview a month ago?

I have stage 4 cancer. I do not have a lot of energy to send out my unpublished manuscripts of children's books and other writing. I have never been able to find an agent to represent me.  I am looking for someone to assist me in sending out my work. I can pay for this assistance.  My unpublished work for children is ten picture books and a couple middle-grade stories.
 
If you are interested in this opportunity or know someone who can help me out, please contact me at janetheller@charter.net or janetruthheller@gmail.com with your credentials, and we can discuss the matter fully.
 
Thank you for any help that you can give me.
 
I would like to express my gratitude to SCBWI-MI for its support of writers like me over the decades!

How the Moon Regained Her Shape, your breakout debut picture book, was inspired by the bullying you endured as a child. Has the success of the book helped to ease the sting of your past injustice? Have you been able to make peace with some of your former bullies?


Writing How the Moon Regained Her Shape (Arbordale, 2006; 7th edition 2022), doing subsequent creative writing workshops for children and adults, and speaking about my book for schools, libraries, bookstores, and conferences have been very healing experiences. 

Teachers tell me that their students are more likely to report bullying after I have read How the Moon Regained Her Shape for their classes and discussed the book with the students.

I have also done research about bullying and published an article about some books for children that help young people understand and cope with such abuse: “Using Novels for Children to Combat Bullying,” International Journal of English and Education, vol. 2, no. 2 (April 2013): pp. 514-23. 

I discovered that many individuals get bullied as children and as adults for a wide variety of attributes. My bullies targeted me because I was a new skinny student in my elementary school, but other kids get bullied for being chubby, being tall or short, wearing glasses, having a different religion, speaking a different language, coming from a poor family, being a person of color, being GLBTQ, having a disability, etc. 

I feel strongly that we need a multicultural society that treats all people with respect and values our differences, rather than punishing people for being unique.

You’ve published as a Jewish writer; you've tackled Jewish themes in your middle-grade chapter book The Passover Surprise; you proudly acknowledge your faith. How much is your body of work influenced by Jewish culture?

I have been active in synagogues and other Jewish organizations since I was five years old. I have served on synagogue boards, been a teacher and the principal of Jewish schools, served as president of Sisterhood, organized speaker series, etc.

Also, I have promoted equality for women in Judaism. For example, I have urged synagogues to promote more women to leadership positions. Traditional prayer books refer to men and boys but do not refer to girls and women. I have advocated for prayer books that use gender-fair language that includes all individuals. 

I organized a group of women at the Congregation of Moses in Kalamazoo who examined different options and then had synagogue members vote. The result was that the synagogue chose a new prayer book entitled Siddur Lev Shalem that is egalitarian.

Like most Jews, I have experienced discrimination, and this makes me sympathize with anyone who gets treated unfairly, including women whose voices go unheard, starving children, people of color, and immigrants. I support many organizations that strive to make our world more just and compassionate.

What was life like for young Janet, growing up in Milwaukee? What influences do you credit for your love of language?

My mother grew up in Milwaukee, but she was an English major at the University of Michigan. She shared her love of literature with me and read me wonderful books, including Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories, A. A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh books, Robert Frost’s poetry, etc.

I always loved to read, and my early ambition was to read every book in my elementary school’s library. I never reached that high goal, but I did read many books. 

In college, I double-majored in English and Spanish, and I also studied Hebrew literature. I took linguistics courses, which taught me how different languages are structured and organized into families. All of this knowledge helps me to write both poetry and prose.

Your father played an important role in your life, but your middle-grade chapter book The Passover Surprise was based partly on an incident when he favored your brother over you based on your gender. Were you able, over the intervening years, to convey your feelings over his latent sexism? Maybe convince him to adopt a more enlightened worldview?

My father taught me to love the natural world, and when I took walks with him, he explained the names of different birds, animals, and plants. Many of my poems and prose works refer to the natural world, especially my poetry book Nature’s Olympics (Wipf and Stock, 2021).

However, my father had a very difficult relationship with his mother, and that shaped his biased view of women and girls. I do not think that he ever realized how much his sexism hurt me when I was a child and a young adult. 

When I was a child, I did not confront him about his favoritism for my brother. I did talk to Dad about this discrimination when I was in my twenties, but he never apologized for his treatment of me.

I hope that my chapter book The Passover Surprise (Fictive Press, 2015, 2016) can help other families to avoid favoritism and to treat children of all genders with love and respect.

You earned a Ph.D. in English Language and Literature from the University of Chicago. Did you always plan to teach?

school visit

When I was very young, I wanted to become a veterinarian because I loved animals. However, as I got older, I realized that a veterinarian needs to operate on dogs and cats and horses, not just play with them. I dislike cutting into living creatures, so I decided to pursue a different career.

By the time I was twelve, I wanted to become a teacher. Because I was the oldest of five children, I frequently served as a teacher for my younger brothers and sisters. 

I spent a lot of time assisting younger siblings with homework, explaining difficult concepts to them, and entertaining them. I enjoyed this interaction, and I think that being a big sister prepared me well to be a teacher.

When I was in high school, I joined Future Teachers of America (FTA), a club for students who planned to enter the field of education. During my senior year, I was the president of the FTA. 


I assisted Barbara Gensler, my favorite English teacher at my high school, and learned a lot from her. She emphasized that a teacher needs to have good relationships with students in order to encourage them to improve their work.

At first, I wanted to teach at a high school, but then I decided that I wanted to teach at the college level. This required my getting a doctorate. I chose to attend the University of Chicago to obtain a doctorate in English language and literature. Courses there were very challenging, and I learned a lot.

While I was studying at the University of Chicago, I tutored and coordinated the Writing Tutor Program, which employed doctoral students like me to help undergraduates improve their writing. 

I enjoyed working directly with students, and they told me about confusing assignments from professors. This helped me to shape my own assignments later when I taught college courses so that students could understand them better.

Your collection of poetry Exodus, is based on biblical characters and stories, often updated for modern times. What enduring truths do you find still resonate thousands of years later?



I identify strongly with many of the universal situations and people in the Jewish Scriptures. For example, Genesis includes stories about favoritism, family conflict, love, etc. 

Other sections of the Bible present tales about close friendships (David and Jonathan), prophets confronting powerful kings and queens, and an exodus from oppression to freedom. Such themes mean a lot to me and still have resonance in 2025.

Jews have written updated versions of Bible stories for centuries, and we call such pieces midrashim. Christians also write similar work and call this process exegesis. So my poems are part of a long tradition.

My poetry book Exodus (WordTech Editions, 2014) often presents a feminist viewpoint, and many of my poems focus on the women in the Bible and their struggle to achieve their goals in a male-centered society.

You’ve often credited your writing group with helping you sharpen and reshape your manuscripts.  Who helps to critique your work?

I have created writers’ groups since I was in graduate school at the University of Wisconsin and the University of Chicago in the 1970s. My current group consists of four women who are published authors. Three of us have doctorates in different fields, and all of us try to give constructive criticism to one another. 

We meet once a month via Zoom or in-person. Before each session, we e-mail one another manuscripts that we think need more work and get suggestions for revision from the other writers. I have found the feedback from my colleagues invaluable. Often, I substantially rework my poetry and prose, improve the pieces, and get them published.

You are writing a memoir. Prose? Poetry? Or a combination?

Janet reading
My memoir is mostly prose, but it will have some poems included. The chapters are self-contained, and I have already published three chapters of my memoir. 

My essay “Returning to Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin” appeared in Midwestern Miscellany, volume 35 (Spring/Fall 2007) on pages 55-59. It concerns my family’s long association with this beautiful lake. 

Another memoir chapter, “A Visit to Isle Royale,” got aired on Morning Edition and All Things Considered on Michigan Public Radio, WUOM, Ann Arbor, on May 3, 1999. The Toho Journal online published this chapter in its winter 2020 issue (January 9, 2021). This essay concerns a trip that my husband and I took to Isle Royale. We spent a lot of time canoeing and got to see a moose, loons, mergansers, white-throated sparrows, etc. We enjoyed our time away from city life. 

Tikkun published my chapter “Sexual Harassment in the Synagogue: A Case Study and Recommendations” on September 7, 2023 online at https://www.tikkun.org/sexual-harassment-in-the-synagogue/ This essay concerns my efforts to convince my former synagogue to restrain a male member who sexually harassed me for fourteen years and my recommendations to houses of worship for combating such abuse. 

Currently, I am a member of Temple B’nai Israel in Kalamazoo, a synagogue that will not tolerate sexual harassment, and I helped develop its policy for ethical conduct of all members. Of course, sexual harassment is one form of bullying.

Please share any social media platforms:

Facebook Page:  https://www.facebook.com/JanetRuthHellerBooks and https://www.facebook.com/janetruth.heller/

LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/janet-heller-395a2a37

Pinterest:  https://www.pinterest.com/hellerjr8/

Amazon Central Author Page:  https://amazon.com/author/janetruthheller 

Twitter/X—username is @janetheller1949

Instagram page is https://www.instagram.com/janetrheller/

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