The End of the World Notwithstanding
Stories I Lived to Tell
Broad target audience, including young and old fans of Mike Birbiglia, David Sedaris, Samantha Irby, Julia Sweeney and Scott Carpenter…anyone who enjoys armchair travel and/or comedic memoir…readers able to recognize, embrace and poke fun at their Inner Alarmist…and perhaps, especially, readers who live along the Front Range or anywhere in the Rocky Mountain West, where Janna lives, and where several of the stories take place. In the midst of cultural transformation, social unrest and a global health crisis: grounded levity, uplifting-yet-thoughtful stories, and a sense of perspective are all appealing if not necessary. While the book is humor, and does not explicitly address current events, Janna’s voice is feminist, socially-aware, cognizant of and sensitive to issues of race, gender and class, and readers should discover currents and undercurrents highly pertinent to our turbulent times. Multiple websites that appeal to a reading public have posted articles, since February, 2020, extolling uplifting books. From bookriot.com and getliterary.com to today.com and goodhouskeeping.com, uplifting and inspirational books have been featured and promoted since COVID-19 started. Fans of Janna’s work may have seen her performance of some of these stories during the brief tour of the solo piece (You Are Reminded That Your Safety Is Your Own ResponsibilityIn terms of “author’s circles” readers: Janna is a professor of Communication at Regis University, with a community of approximately 775 faculty and over 2,300 students; she’s also on faculty in the Mile High MFA writing program. She has taught there for sixteen years and, including former majors and advisees, participates in an alumni network of around 1,600; she can also call up a community from her former graduate program at the University of Massachusetts.
Janna L. Goodwin teaches in the Communication department and the Mile High MFA program at Regis University in Denver, Colorado. She grew up in Wyoming, performed improv comedy for a few years with Moving Violations and other groups in the Los Angeles area, and—after living for a year in France—studied theatre at the National Shakespeare Conservatory in New York. She earned her BA in Film and Music from Hampshire College and her doctoral degree in Communication from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Her plays have been produced by independent theatre companies on the East Coast and in Colorado. She has created and directed ensemble comedies for many years, including The House Not Touched by Death (Pilgrim Theatre Collective; the Ko Festival of Performance) and Just Pretend Everything Is Perfectly Normal (Playwright Theatre). Her most recent solo show, You Are Reminded That Your Safety is Your Own Responsibility, premiered at the United Solo Theatre Festival in New York, toured a bit, and provided the original material for this, her first book.
