PORTAGE, MI, March 25, 2019 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Marquis Who's Who, the world's premier publisher of biographical profiles, is proud to present Janet Ruth Heller, Ph.D., with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. An accomplished listee, Dr. Heller celebrates many years' experience in her professional network, and has been noted for achievements, leadership qualities, and the credentials and successes she has accrued in her field. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
After studying at Oberlin College from 1967 to 1970, Dr. Heller earned a Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, and a Master of Arts from the University of Wisconsin in 1971 and 1973, respectively. She ultimately earned a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Chicago in 1987. Commencing her career as coordinator of the writing tutor program at the University of Chicago from 1976 to 1981, she soon worked as a lecturer in creative writing at the university and instructor of English at Northern Illinois University. As her career progressed, Dr. Heller served as assistant professor of English at Nazareth College, Grand Valley State University and Albion College. She most recently served as assistant professor of women's studies and English at Western Michigan University.
In addition to her primary professional accomplishments, Dr. Heller has organized and led panels and workshops at conferences for numerous organizations, including the Modern Language Association, the Midwest Modern Language Association, the Michigan College English Association, the International Society for Humor Studies, the North American Society for the Study of Romanticism, the Southern Conference on British Studies, the National Council of Teachers of English and the College English Association. Her conference experience also extends to Remembering Rachel: The Second National Conference on the Spiritual Woman and Writing the Midwest: A Symposium of Scholars and Creative Writers, and she has served as a speaker at the International Literacy Association Convention in Atlanta, GA, for the Children's Choices Panel, among other credits. Dr. Heller has been a specialist reader for Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature since 2010 and a referee for articles for Style since 2007, having previously served as a book reviewer for the Library Journal and a theater, movie and dance reviewer for the Kalamazoo Gazette.
Cultivating a lifelong love of literature and writing, Dr. Heller is notable for her book on bullying, How the Moon Regained her Shape, which was published in 2006 and won the Book Sense Award, the Benjamin Franklin Award, the Children's Choices Award and the Gold Medal in the Moonbeam Children's Book Awards. Her other published works include the essay "Returning to Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin"; Coleridge, Lamb, Hazlitt, and the Reader of Drama, a book of literary criticism, which was published in 1990 by the University of Missouri Press, and the middle-grade chapter book for children The Passover Surprise (Fictive Press, 2015, 2016), along with three books of poetry, Traffic Stop (Finishing Line Press, 2011), Folk Concert: Changing Times (Anaphora Literary Press, 2012, and Exodus (WordTech Editions, 2014). Her play, "Pledging," was produced at the 2017 Tritonysia Play Festival. She has also contributed dozens of articles to journals and anthologies of literary criticism. Interested in community outreach, Dr. Heller is president of the Ladies' Library Association of Kalamazoo and has been a board member of Friends of Poetry, president of the Congregation of Moses' Sisterhood, and president of the Michigan College English Association.
Interested in community outreach, Dr. Heller is president of the Ladies' Library Association of Kalamazoo and has been a board member of Friends of Poetry, president of the Congregation of Moses' Sisterhood, president of the Michigan College English Association, and president of the Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature.
Dr. Heller has been the recipient of numerous awards in her industry. A winner of the Friends of Poetry Contest in Kalamazoo in 1989, she was also a finalist for the Richard Snyder Memorial Poetry Prize, a semi-finalist for the Finishing Line Press Chapbook Competition and first-place winner of Crucible Literary Magazine's 2014 poetry contest, among several other honors. Her play The Cell Phone won fourth place in a national contest and was performed twice at the Fenton Village Players One-Act Play Festival in 2011 in Fenton, Michigan. She was also notably co-founder of the Professional Instructors Organization union at Western Michigan University and is listed in the Directory of American Poets and Fiction Writers.
In light of her professional enthusiasm, Dr. Heller belongs to the Modern Language Association, the Midwest Modern Language Association, the Michigan College English Association, the National Council of Teachers of English and the Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature, often serving in leadership positions. She has also been involved with the Women's Advisory Council for WGVU Public Media, the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, the International Literacy Association, the Michigan Reading Association and the College English Association. Dr. Heller has been honored in such publications as Who's Who in America, Who's Who in the Midwest and Who's Who of American Women.
In recognition of outstanding contributions to her profession and the Marquis Who's Who community, Dr. Heller has been featured on the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement website. Please visit www.ltachievers.com for more information about this honor.
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