Novak, Jana

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Novak, Jana

PERSONAL:

Daughter of Michael Novak (a writer, educator, and former U.S. ambassador). Education: Attended Summer Institute of Theology, Brookline, MA, 1991; Duke University, B.A., 1994.

ADDRESSES:

Office—241 10th St. N.E., Washington, DC, 20002-6213.

CAREER:

Writer, editor, poet, and political consultant. National Children's Center, Washington, DC, assistant, summer 1989, 1990; Crisis, Washington, DC, editorial assistant,1994-95; Rising Tide magazine, Republican National Committee, Washington, DC, assistant editor, 1995-96; freelance editor, Washington, DC, 1997; Office of the Speaker, Washington, DC, writer, 1997-99, senior writer, 1999; communication director for U.S. Representative Tillie Fowler, Washington, DC, 1999; senior communications advisor for Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, Washington, DC, 2001-02; senior policy advisor for Sam Brownback, Washington, DC, 2002- 03; National Endowment for the Arts, Washington, DC, congressional relations, 2003-04; freelance writer and editor, 2004—.

WRITINGS:

(With father, Michael Novak) Tell Me Why: A Father Answers His Daughter's Questions about God, Pocket Books (New York, NY), 1998.

(Editor) Olof Murelius, Don't Play Away Your Cards, Uncle Sam: The American Difference, Lexington Books (Lanham, MD), 2002.

(With Michael Novak) Washington's God: Religion, Liberty, and the Father of Our Country, Basic Books (New York, NY), 2006.

Contributor of articles and editorials to periodicals.

SIDELIGHTS:

Jana Novak, a former policy advisor in Washington, DC, is also the author of two books with her father, Michael Novak: Tell Me Why: A Father Answers His Daughter's Questions about God and Washington's God: Religion, Liberty, and the Father of Our Country. In Washington's God, the fatherdaughter team presents their case countering the longheld belief that Washington was not a devout Christian but rather a deist who believed in an impersonal God. Jana and Michael Novak carefully reflect on Washington's known religious statements and present their argument that these statements show that the first president of the United States was a dedicated Christian. "The authors argue that his ambiguity on the use of religious language was the method of a man seeking to hold a young country together by avoiding needless strife," wrote Bob Trimble in the Dallas Morning News. In a review in Publishers Weekly, a contributor noted: "Written at the specific request of Mount Vernon and with the assistance of their archives, this book is carefully researched." Another reviewer, writing in First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life, commented that the authors "cast new light [on] Washington." In a review in Booklist, Bryce Christensen noted that the book sheds "much-needed light on an enigmatic icon."