Janna Malamud Smith

  Main   Works   Biography   Discussion    

Janna Malamud Smith

photo by Debi Milligan

Biography

Janna Malamud Smith is a writer and psychotherapist. She is the author of three books, Private Matters (1997), A Potent Spell (2003), and My Father is a Book: A Memoir of Bernard Malamud (2006). Her articles and essays have appeared nationally and internationally in newspapers, magazines and literary journals including The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune, The Christian Science Monitor, Family Circle and The Threepenny Review. Ms. Smith was born in Corvallis, Oregon, and, after moving east as a nine-year-old, lived briefly in Vermont before settling in the Boston area. She studied American History and Literature in college, and then pursued a graduate degree in clinical social work. Smith continues to work part-time as a clinical social worker, mostly now teaching psychotherapy in a hospital-based department of psychiatry, as well as in private practice. She is married, and the mother of two sons.


Selected Works

1. Non-Fiction
Private Matters: In Defense of the Personal Life
“a gorgeously written anecdotal cultural history of the emergence and the fragile sanctity of the modern creative self…”
-The New York Times Book Review
2. Non-fiction
A Potent Spell: Mother Love and the Power of Fear
“reads like a deep, intelligent conversation with a valued woman friend.”
--Ottawa Citizen
"Fascinating. . . provocative."
--Washington Post
Non-fiction
My Father is a Book: A Memoir of Bernard Malamud
"Beautiful...A must for anyone interested in the work of Bernard Malamud, or the writer's life..." Mary Gordon



Find Authors

Created by The Authors Guild

A note for users of older versions of Internet Explorer, Netscape, or AOL:
This site will look a lot better in a newer browser. Download one for free!
Internet Explorer: Windows Mac   |   Netscape: Windows Mac Other
For AOL users, please choose Internet Explorer above.