Janet SternburgJanet Sternburg is a poet and essayist, best known in the literary world for editing the classic two-volume set, The Writer on Her Work, long recognized as a groundbreaking work on women and writing. Norton issued a special anniversary edition in 2000 with a new introduction by Julia Alvarez. The Writer on Her Work has been named one of the 500 Great Books by Women: Thirteenth Century to the Present, and has been recognized by the Literary Guild, Writers Digest Book Club, Quality Book Club and the Common Reader.

Sternburg has also had a career in film and theater. She produced and directed award-winning films for public television, among them Virginia Woolf: The Moment Whole, featuring Marian Seldes, on being a woman and a writer. She created, curated, and wrote the thirteen-part series, Through Her Eyes, the first nationally televised series of independent films by women. In addition, Sternburg served as the Senior Program Officer in Media for the Rockefeller Foundation, where she directed an international fellowship program. For seven years she served as director of the Writers in Performance Series at the Manhattan Theatre Club, where she pioneered new ways to present literature on stage. Those events included Stockard Channing in Colette and Zoe Caldwell in Isak Dinesen.

Also an accomplished photographer, Sternburg's photography has been exhibited nationally and internationally, purchased by major collectors, and is in the permanent collection of the museum of the University of Southern California. In February 2002, a six-page portfolio of her work will appear in the distinguished international photography magazine Aperture. Timed to coincide with the Aperture publication, Sternburg's work will be seen in a solo show at the James Francis Trezza gallery in New York City. In March 2002, Art Journal will publish an eight-page portfolio of her work.

Sternburg currently is a member of the faculty of critical studies at the California Institute of the Arts, where she teaches in the writing program. She has received many awards and fellowships including the Albert Camus Award in French Literature from the New School, the Dale Djerassi Fellow at the Djerassi Artist Residence Program, and fellow of the MacDowell Colony, the Millay Colony and the Blue Mountain Artist Retreat, as well as multiple National Endowment for the Humanities grants. She currently serves on the board of directors of PEN Center West, where she has served as vice president and chair of the Literary Awards.

Sternburg and her husband, Steven D. Lavine, president of the California Institute of the Arts, divide their time between Los Angeles, New York, and San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Sternburg loves classical and world music, singing to her dogs, and traveling, most recently to Iran and India.

Artwork by Janet Sternburg