Janice Gary is an award-winning author, educator, writer of nonfiction and a passionate advocate for those whose stories need to be told – and heard. Author of the award-winning book Short Leash: A Memoir of Dog Walking and Deliverance, she is a Pushcart-nominated essayist whose work has been published in journals such as Brevity, Longreads, Potomac Review, River Teeth, Slag Glass City and included in several anthologies.
That’s my official bio folks, but you can call me a Feminist/Buddhist/Rock and roll/Dog Mama who writes about life as I know it. That would make me a memoirist. People ask if I ever run out of material. The answer, emphatically, is no.
To me, life-as-it-is is wilder, weirder, more beautiful and more puzzling than anything I can make up. I write to know what I do not know, to honor what I do know and to tell my story as truthfully and artfully as possible.
I believe our stories are alive inside us, waiting and wanting to be told. I tell my students, if you want to know where to start and what to write, pay attention to the memories that keep circling in around you. It’s not what you remember; it’s what you can’t forget.
In the midst of these challenging times we all live in, writing, reading and the power of story can be a kind of life raft keeping us connected to each other and our deepest selves. It has been for me. As a child, it kept me afloat in a family which was rarely happy and often tragically unhappy. And as a woman living out the consequences of such a life, it has transformed me over and over again. Writing can do that for you. It did for me.
If you have ever felt the need to write about your life, I encourage you to answer the call. Our stories are more important now than ever. I’m here to help you tell them.
That’s my official bio folks, but you can call me a Feminist/Buddhist/Rock and roll/Dog Mama who writes about life as I know it. That would make me a memoirist. People ask if I ever run out of material. The answer, emphatically, is no.
To me, life-as-it-is is wilder, weirder, more beautiful and more puzzling than anything I can make up. I write to know what I do not know, to honor what I do know and to tell my story as truthfully and artfully as possible.
I believe our stories are alive inside us, waiting and wanting to be told. I tell my students, if you want to know where to start and what to write, pay attention to the memories that keep circling in around you. It’s not what you remember; it’s what you can’t forget.
In the midst of these challenging times we all live in, writing, reading and the power of story can be a kind of life raft keeping us connected to each other and our deepest selves. It has been for me. As a child, it kept me afloat in a family which was rarely happy and often tragically unhappy. And as a woman living out the consequences of such a life, it has transformed me over and over again. Writing can do that for you. It did for me.
If you have ever felt the need to write about your life, I encourage you to answer the call. Our stories are more important now than ever. I’m here to help you tell them.
Janice with members of her long-standing AACC Continuing Education Memoir class in Annapolis- L to R Kristina von Rosenvinge, author of Escaping the Russian Bear (Lakeshore Press, 2015), Janice, Jane Willingham and Mary Lou Bloom