About Janice
A librarian who harbored a secret desire to write, in the mid-1990s Janice N. Harrington returned to an old dream of writing poetry. Every day before work, in the early hours of the morning (taking advantage of her chronic insomnia and the luxurious quiet), Janice wrote poem after poem, especially about her family and memories of the South. This attention to writing and reading poetry led to countless drafts and eventually to her first book of poems, Even the Hollow My Body Made Is Gone, winner of the A. Poulin Jr. Poetry Prize and the Kate Tufts Discovery Award for Poetry.
Janice didn’t look back. She continued to write poetry and (after another sleepless night) she turned a poem recalling a childhood memory into her first children’s picture book, Going North, winner of the Ezra Jack Keats Award. That night’s bout of insomnia has since grown into a career as a children’s writer with many picture books, including two picture book biographies plus a popular verse novel.
Janice lives in Champaign, Illinois where she regularly visits local prairies, Black history sites, and any place that celebrates books. She is the Clayton and Thelma Kirkpatrick Professor of English at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Articles, Interviews, and More
Interviews
Video interview with Tim Green of Rattle
The Rumpus Poetry Book Club Chat” about Primitive
Interview with Ploughshares about The Hands of Strangers
Interview with Kirkus about Busy-Busy Little Chick
Interview with West Branch about The Hands of Strangers
Interview with Poetry Society of America
Interview with the Brown Bookshelf
Articles
Poetry inspired by painting: “Domino Players, 1943”
In the New York Times, on children’s reading
Other
