Janet Ruth Heller has her Ph.D. in English Language and Literature from the University of Chicago. After a career of almost 30 years of teaching at various colleges and universities, she is currently an assistant professor for the English Department at Western Michigan University. She has taught a wide variety of classes, including creative writing and literature for children. Janet is a prolific writer of poetry and stories that have been published in a wide variety of magazines and journals. She is a founding mother of Primavera, a literary magazine based in Chicago.