Bio
Janet Ruth Falon, MLA, is an award-winning writer and writing teacher who excels at helping people to love the writing process and express their unique stories.
Janet honed her writing skills through a Bachelor of Science in Journalism at Boston University (Summa Cum Laude, 1976) and a Master of Liberal Arts at Temple University (1990).
Prior to pursuing a successful career as a freelance writer, Janet worked as a newspaper reporter and magazine editor. She is the author of The Jewish Journaling Book (Jewish Lights, 2004), has an essay in Father: Famous Writers Celebrate the Bond Between Father and Child (Pocket, 2000), and has contributed to various literary anthologies. Janet has also written for many newspapers and magazines including The New York Times.
Janet has also written several documentaries and a play for public television. She is the author of the books Kissed The Girls and Made Them Cry: Teaching Gender Respect to Children, and The Gender Respect Workbook (Childswork/Childsplay, 1998). In addition, Janet writes innovative wedding ceremonies and Jewish liturgy.
As a teacher, Janet’s courses focus on the techniques of journalism, creative writing, business writing and editing, as well as the creative process of writing. She has taught at The University of Pennsylvania for more than two decades, and has taught writing at many educational and cultural institutions including New York University, Temple University, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Bartram’s Gardens, and Gratz College.
In 1990, Janet created a writing course for business, "Words at Work," and has since taught it at many corporations and organizations around the country including CIGNA, Educational Testing Service, QVC, and Sanofi-Winthrop.
Based on the principles she describes in The Jewish Journaling Book, Janet also teaches Jewish Journaling workshops, which have been offered to and through synagogues, sisterhoods, senior adult groups, Jewish educators, and Jewish communal workers. Workshops can be connected to specific holidays or events, or can stand alone.
A journal-keeper since 1963, Janet teaches journaling skills to a variety of groups, including women with breast cancer.
Janet lives in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania with her husband, Cary Mazer, a professor of theatre arts at The University of Pennsylvania, and their daughter, Hope, as well as two plump and beloved cats, Shayna and Yussel.
Awards
Winner, Winterthur's "If Objects Could Talk" essay contest,
1996
Regional Emmy award for “Refuseniks: A Family Divided,”
written and produced for WHYY-TV,Philadelphia, PA,
1987
Winner, Boston University Alumni Poetry Contest, 1987,
1986, 1985, 1984
National winner, Boston University Alumni Writing
Competition, first place in features, 1981
Winner, Keystone Award (Pa.), 1981
Winner, Pennsylvania Women's Press Association, 1981
Winner, Easter Seal award, 1981
National winner, Golden Carnation Award, first place in
nutrition writing, 1980
Winner, Rotary International fellowship, one of 70 journal-
ists world-wide, 1980
Special award, Epilepsy Foundation of America, 1980
National winner, Russell L. Cecil Award, Arthritis Foundation,
1979
Winner, William Randolph Hearst Writing Contest, 1976
Winner, Mark of Excellence Writing Contest, Sigma Delta Chi,
1976
Winner, first Women in Communications internship, Boston
chapter, 1976
Winner, national internship, Magazine Publishers Association,
1975
Q&A with Janet Ruth Falon, author of The Jewish Journaling Book (Jewish Lights, 2004)
Q. You’ve taught journaling for many years. What do your students take away from the experience?
A. There are three things I hope people will learn. First off, I want them to expand their notion of what makes a valid journal, and discard old assumptions about journaling. Second, I want people to feel equipped with a variety of exciting journaling techniques that they can choose from. Finally, I want my students to have a strong sense that they can use the journal to think about and work through many parts of their life, not the least of which is their spiritual life.
Q. How did you come up with the idea of writing The Jewish Journaling Book?
A. I’ve been writing in a journal since I’m eight years old. Over the years I’ve certainly written about Jewish experiences and feelings, but it was only a few years ago, when circumstances in my life were difficult and I was going through a “crisis of faith” that I realized how much I was using my journal to understand and rethink my spiritual feelings and work myself back to a more comfortable relationship with my Jewishness.
Q. So what’s particularly Jewish about keeping in a journal?
It’s an amazingly Jewish pursuit. For one, there’s an historic precedent to journal-keeping. There have been times in our history when Jews kept journals, such as the when the Kabbalists used journals to record their experiences. And the Holocaust journals of survivors as well as people who perished are essential, heart-breaking documents that give us intimate portraits of what it was like to live during that terrible time. There’s also a spiritual precedent to journal-keeping. For example, it’s traditional to write in a journal during the introspective month of Elul, right before the High Holidays, and at other times of the year, such as the 40 days of counting the Omer. But journaling is wonderfully Jewish because, after all, we’re “The People of the Book.” Books – the Torah, and all the books of commentary that engage with it – are central to our identify. Words matter to us and we know their importance out in the world. We’re verbal people, inward-looking people who use words to grapple with the most important issues of our human experience.
Q. Do you have to be an observant Jew or someone for whom Judaism is a priority in order for this book to make sense and be useful?
A. Not at all. Certainly you can choose to write about overtly Jewish topics, and journals are tremendously useful for that, but I believe that the underlying principles and approaches to journaling that I write about, and the exercises I suggest, are sufficiently unique that anyone interested in journaling will benefit.
Q. Does someone who reads The Jewish Journaling Book need to already keep a secular journal?
A. No. I wrote this book for journal novices, journal veterans, and journal-writers who are looking to revitalize their journal-keeping. In the book I debunk a lot of myths about journal-writing, such as encouraging people to write in their journals not only when they’re miserable but in all moods. I also provide innovative writing techniques, all with the aim of making the journal a reliably accepting and inspiring place. These methods have been tested: I’ve been teaching journal-writing for more than two decades and have seen how these techniques both motivate and reinvigorate journal-keeping.
To buy a copy of The Jewish Journaling Book, contact Janet by email or call 215-635-1698.
