Janis F. Kearney
Biography of Janis F. Kearney
Janis F. Kearney is a native Arkansan who now resides in Little Rock, Arkansas, where she writes, publishes, and teaches writing. She is a former newspaper publisher and journalist who purchased the historic Arkansas State Press newspaper from civil rights legend Daisy Gatson Bates in 1988. She served eight years in the Clinton presidency as a White House media affairs specialist, Director of Public Communications for the U.S. Small Business Administration, and as Personal Diarist to President Clinton.
In 2001, Janis was selected as a fellow at the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute of African and African American Studies at Harvard University. She founded World Publishing, a small, independent book publishing company, in 2003. Her books include the award-winning Cotton Field of Dreams; Something to Write Home About; Daisy: Between a Rock and a Hard Place; Conversations: William J. Clinton; and Sundays with TJ: 100 Years of Memories on Varner Road. Most of her books have been adopted by public schools and colleges/universities around the country. She has also served as co-writer and publisher of five personal memoirs of everyday Americans who have lived extraordinary lives.
In 2004, Janis was selected as a Humanities Fellow at Chicago’s DePaul University, and in 2007, as a Visiting Humanities Scholar and Professor at Arkansas State University, Jonesboro. Janis’ volunteer projects include the Celebrate! Maya Project of Arkansas — a nonprofit founded in 2014 after the death of literary icon Maya Angelou, to increase awareness of Maya Angelou’s life and legacy in the state of Arkansas, and to partner with schools and communities in the Arkansas Delta to help youth realize their academic and artistic dreams through programming, writing workshops, and poetry and art contests.
Janis founded the Read.Write.Share. Writers Weekend in 2015 to address the needs of new and emerging writers by creating a space that encourages creativity and open dialogue with seasoned writers as they hone their writing skills and share their personal stories. She was inducted into the Arkansas Writers Hall of Fame in 2016.
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