About Writer Jan Bowman

Jan Bowman is seen here at the Outer Banks (Corolla, NC), a favorite place to kick back, relax and write.  She likes looking out at the ocean, reflecting and journaling about current writing projects. Some of you may know Jan from various writing workshops at the University of Iowa or Tinker Mountain or the Gettysburg Writing Conference, or perhaps from writing classes at the Writers Center in Bethesda, MD.  Others of you may know Jan as Dr. B. for her work on educational policy issues for the Montgomery County Maryland Public Schools or for the Department of Education or perhaps from her work teaching AP English Literature, Advanced Journalism and Creative Writing at Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, MD.  She was the advisor for the award-winning newspaper, The Black & White for a number of years. 

After much thought,  Jan decided to give her writing life the time and effort needed to develop a number of fiction ideas; she spends her week days working on her passion - writing - specifically, writing short stories and other types of fiction, as well as nonfiction essays and journal entries on writing for her website:

Blog Site:   http://janbowmanwriter.blogspot.com

       

    AND YES - LIFE IS GOOD.

updated March 2014

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Recent Writing Honors

Jan Bowman’s work has appeared in numerous publications including most recently, Roanoke Review, Big Muddy, The Broadkill Review, Third Wednesday, Minimus, Buffalo Spree (97), Folio, The Potomac Review, Musings, Potato Eyes and others.  “Mermaids” won the 2011 Roanoke Review Fiction Award, published in September 2012 issue.

A recent story was a finalist for the 2013 Broad River Review RASH Awards and another story was a finalist in the 2013 Phoebe Fiction Contest. Another story was a 2011 semi-finalist for the “So to Speak” fiction contest and has since been published elsewhere.

Glimmer Train named a story as an Honorable Mention in the November 2012 Short Story Awards for New Writers -  announced January 22, 2013.

“Mermaids” first prize fiction winner in the Roanoke Review 2011 Fiction Contest published in Roanoke Review 2012, volume xxxvii - released September 2012.

“This Arrow Marks Me” published in THE BROADKILL REVIEW, vol. 5, no. 5, September/October 2011, was  nominated for a Pushcart Prize (December 2011).

“This Arrow Marks Me”  has been added to the previously published stories section.  Remember - these stories are all fiction.  Even first person narratives are fictional and bear no likeness to actual persons I’ve known.

Recent creative nonfiction has been published in Pen-in-Hand - the Fall 2012 and Spring 2013 Issues of Trajectory and at the Trajectory online site. Jan has attended the Iowa Summer Writing Festival Workshops for a number of summers taking classes with Robert Olen Butler, Elizabeth McCracken, Lan Samantha Chang, Susan Power, Fred Leebron, and others. Most recently, she has taken workshops with Lee K. Abbott at Gettysburg College/The Gettysburg Review and with Pinckney Benedict and with Daniel Mueller at Tinker Mountain Writers’ Conference at Hollins University.  She is shopping for a publisher for a story collection, Mermaids & Other Stories.

BACKGROUND NOTES

Jan was born in Charleston, SC.  She earned her PhD from the University of Maryland, and her BA and Masters degrees from Clemson University.  She has taught, conducted research, and published papers on educational issues and cognitive psychology.   She lives in Maryland.  Her main interest is writing, but other interests include: travel adventures, local environmental issues, her garden, blue birds in the meadow, reading, sailing, photography, exercise and yoga classes.  

Jan’s front garden was awarded the 2012 and 2011 Columbia Town Center Garden Award.  Many mornings she works in her garden while thinking about ways to resolve writing problems.  She is also pleased to announce that once again her resident Eastern blue birds successfully nested at three sites in the meadow behind her house with 5 babies in each of the first hatchings.  Jan enjoys watching these beautiful birds; they fly in from the woods or meadow when she whistles. This is an excellent thing to see. These birds have nested here since 2001 and this gives her great joy. They are a “spiritual” gift sent by her mother.

In Wade Graham’s Introduction to American Eden, he writes that “our gardens speak for us, often  we assign them certain lines in the play that we write about ourselves that we are hesitant to utter in our own voices.” Gardens bring life and life gives joy, regardless of the season.

Personal Notes from Jan about the writing life:

At this time I have a number of stories in various stages of revision, as well as others out for publication consideration. I write daily (Monday-Friday) most afternoons for about 3-4 hours with a once a week (Thursday) afternoon break to go to my favorite local farmers market or local library. Some days the work goes well.  Other days - not so much - when work that seemed promising weeks earlier must be deleted and released from false starts because I failed to “listen” and “feel” the characters who live and long for their own lives on the page.  Some work must be reconsidered in  dream time or by carefully letting it go for a while.  All of this is to say that writing is hard work, but important and essential and - when it goes well - it is great fun, although - sometimes the hardest part is sitting down in the chair and my putting my hands on keyboard. 

Check out the Reading List and Reflections pages for regular updates.

Blog Site:    http://janbowmanwriter.blogspot.com

FaceBook:    jan.bowman.77@facebook.com

Click here to contact Jan - email:    janbowmanwriter@gmail.com