Jane Piirto

Jane Piirto, Ph.D. is a poet, novelist, essayist, and scholar. Her first novel, The Three-Week Trance Diet, won the Carpenter Press First Novel Award. She has received writing fellowships in both poetry and fiction from the Ohio Arts Council. Her most recent book of poetry is called Saunas. She has a book of collected poems, stories, and essays about her home region, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and about her Finnish heritage. It is called A Location in the Upper Peninsula.

Her book on the psychology of creativity, Understanding Creativity, won the Parents' Choice Award and an Arizona Best Book Award. Her textbook about giftedness and talent development, Talented Children and Adults: Their Development and Education, has gone into 3 editions. She's a Trustees' Distinguished Professor emerita at Ashland University. Her book of practical suggestions about how to be more creative personally and as an educator, is called Creativity for 21st Century Skills.

Her novel, The Arrest, was a finalist in the Birmingham Novel Contest. Her novella is called Labyrinth. She edited a book called Organic Creativity: Teaching to Intuition in Academics and in the Arts, which features 22 educators in many domains, telling how they teach creatively. The anthology, Here: Women Writers of the Upper Peninsula, has as its title, her poem about her Finnish ancestry.

She's received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Mensa Foundation and an honorary doctorate from Northern Michigan University. She was also named Distinguished Scholar by the National Association for Gifted Children. Her dog's name is Maija, and her grown children are Denise and Steven. Her granddaughter is Danielle.

Jane's web page containing many of her writings, is https://janepiirto.com