Author Rhoda Janzen Visits Kalamazoo Valley on Feb. 15

The Visiting Writers series at Kalamazoo Valley Community College hosts author Rhoda Janzen on Thursday, February 15 in the Student Commons Theater, Room 4240 at the Texas Township Campus. She will read from her work from 10 to 10:45 a.m. and give a craft talk from 2:15 to 3 p.m.

Janzen, a professor at Hope College, is the author of Mennonite in a Little Black Dress: A Memoir of Going Home (St. Martin’s Griffin, 2010) and Mennonite Meets Mr. Right (Grand Central Publishing, 2012). She has also written Babel’s Stair, a collection of poems.

Mennonite in a Little Black Dress is an immensely moving memoir rising out of Janzen’s experience of returning to her Mennonite family’s home after a personal crisis. Injured in a car wreck and recently left by her husband of fifteen years, Janzen returned to her roots in Fresno, California to heal and find faith, love, and family again.

Janzen received her B.A. from Fresno Pacific University, an M.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Florida, Gainesville, and an M.A. and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles. In 1994 and 1997 she was selected as the University of California Poet Laureate.

Her poems have appeared in Poetry, The Yale Review, The Gettysburg Review, and The Southern Review.

Janzen is a professor at Hope College in Holland, Michigan. Kalamazoo Valley’s “About Writing” series is organized by instructor Rob Haight and offers students the opportunity to talk with professional writers and listen to their work. For more information, call Rob Haight at 269.488.4452 or email rhaight@kvcc.edu.