Canan, Janine 1942–

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Canan, Janine 1942–

PERSONAL: Born November 2, 1942, in Los Angeles, CA; daughter of Lewis Marion (a restaurateur and entrepreneur) and Mary Alene (Clay) Burford; married Michael James Canan, August 31, 1963 (divorced). Ethnicity: "Mixed." Education: Stanford University, B.A. (with distinction) 1963; attended University of California, Berkeley, 1963–68; attended University of California, San Francisco, 1974–75; New York University, M.D., 1976.

ADDRESSES: Home—772 Ernest Dr., Sonoma, CA 95476. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Writer. Private practice of psychiatry, Sonoma, CA, 1976–.

AWARDS, HONORS: Grant from National Endowment for the Arts, 1977; Pushcart Prize nomination, 1982, for the poem "Childhood"; award from American Poetry Association, 1988, for the poem "Conversation"; Susan Koppelman Award, best-edited feminist work, 1990, for She Rises like the Sun: Invocations of the Goddess by Contemporary American Women Poets; winner of Artists Embassy International Dancing Poetry Contest, 1996, with "Sarangi Sorrow"; award from Poetalk Quarterly, 1997, for the Poem "The Stones"; citation among best spiritual books of the year, Spirituality and Health, 2004, for Messages from Amma: In the Language of the Heart.

WRITINGS:

POETRY

Of Your Seed, Oyez Press (Berkeley, CA), 1977.

The Hunger, Oyez Press (Berkeley, CA), 1979.

Who Buried the Breast of Dreams, Emily Dickinson Press (Berkeley, CA), 1981.

Daughter, illustrated by Donna Brookman, Emily Dickinson Press (Berkeley, CA), 1981.

Shapes of Self, Emily Dickinson Press (Berkeley, CA), 1982.

Her Magnificent Body: New and Selected Poems, Manroot Press (San Francisco, CA), 1986.

Goddess Poems, Sagittarius Press (Port Townsend, WA), 1997.

Love, Enter, Open Bone Press (Port Angeles, WA), 1998.

Changing Woman, Scars Publications (Chicago, IL), 2000.

In the Palace of Creation: Selected Works, 1969–1999, Scars Publications (Chicago, IL), 2002.

Work represented in numerous anthologies, including Americans Say Good-bye to the Twentieth Century; Animal Blessings; The Divine Feminine; Forever in Love; From the Realm of the Ancestors; Get Well Wishes; Heal Your Soul, Heal the World; Her Words; Parent Blessings; Mirror Mirror; New Directions 42; Pocket Prayers; Practicing Angels; Prayers to Protest; Return of the Goddess; She Is Everywhere; Thus Spake the Corpse; Up Late: American Poetry Since 1979; We'Moon Calendar; Women Poets of the World; Com-fort Prayers; and WomanPrayers. Contributor to periodicals, including Acorn, Awakened Woman, Bloomsbury Review, California Quarterly, Caprice, Colorado North Review, Exquisite Corpse, Goddessing, Heart and Wings, Kalliope, Luna, San Francisco Chronicle, Temple, and West Wind Review. Canan's poems have also been published as keepsakes, broadsides, and greeting cards.

OTHER

(Editor) She Rises like the Sun: Invocations of the Goddess by Contemporary American Women Poets (poetry), Crossing Press (Freedom, CA), 1989.

(Translator) Else Lasker-Shueler, Star in My Forehead: Selected Poems by Else Lasker-Schueler (bilingual in German and English), Holy Cow! Press (Duluth, MN), 2000.

(Editor) The Rhyme of the Ag-ed Mariness: The Last Poems of Lynn Lonidier, Station Hill (Barrytown, NY), 2001.

(Editor) Messages from Amma: In the Language of the Heart, Celestial Arts (Berkeley, CA), 2004.

Goddesses, Goddesses: Essays by Janine Canan, Scars Publications (Chicago, IL), 2006.

Canan's papers are housed at the University of Iowa, Iowa City.

ADAPTATIONS: Janine Canan Reads, a reading of selected poetry, was released on audio cassette by Heaven Productions.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Journeys with Justine, a work of fiction, illustrated by Cristina Biaggi; Burning through Everything, a poetry collection, completion expected in 2007.

SIDELIGHTS: Janine Canan told CA: "My mother sang and read to me as a child, and I began to write early. I was inspired by her books and the wonderful literature I encountered in school and college. Eliot and cummings were primary influences; in the Sixties I was immersed in contemporary American poetry; and later the British novelist Iris Murdoch became a deep influence. I believe that a poet—moved, called and compelled from within—learns to write poetry by reading and hearing great literature. I write spontaneously, wherever I am, and later revise ad infinitum. As a child I wrote to clarify my thoughts and pour out my feelings. In my youth I concentrated on communicating feeling—I longed to create something of beauty. Later on I felt that my thinking should also be part of the poem; and still later, that the poem should convey my vision of the world and life and the supreme reality. I was always fond of the imaginative prose poems, Shape of Self; I believe that some of my best poems are among the love poems in Changing Woman; and I have greatly enjoyed compiling the inspiring collections, She Rises like the Sun and Messages from Amma. But I do not have a favorite book, for I see all my work as one long unfolding oeuvre. I hope that my poems will stir the mind, the heart and the inner eye of whoever may discover them, awakening him or her to a new awareness of life."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Jewish World, September 29, 2000, review of Star in My Forehead: Selected Poems by Else Lasker-Schueler, p. 13.

Belles Lettres: Review of Books by Women, spring, 1990, review of She Rises like the Sun: Invocations of the Goddess by Contemporary American Women Poets, p. 9.

Booklist, May 15, 1989, review of She Rises like the Sun, p. 1601.

Bookwatch, July, 1989, review of She Rises like the Sun, p. 1.

Fit Yoga, spring, 2005, review of Messages from Amma: In the Language of the Heart, p. 10.

Goddessing, spring, 2001, review of Changing Woman, p. 16.

Kalliope: A Journal of Women's Literature and Art, summer, 2001, review of Changing Woman, p. 77.

Lilith, winter, 2000, review of Star in My Forehead, p. 40.

New Directions for Women, July, 1989, review of She Rises like the Sun, p. 23.

Publishers Weekly, March 29, 2004, review of Messages from Amma, p. 60.

San Francisco Review of Books, fall, 1986, review of Her Magnificent Body: New and Selected Poems, p. 14.

Small Press Book Review, June, 1986, review of Her Magnificent Body, p. 15; September, 1986, review of Her Magnificent Body, p. 2; January, 2001, review of Star in My Forehead, p. 6.

Women's Review of Books, March, 1990, review of She Rises like the Sun, p. 25.