The title of one of Janet Wong's many books is You Have to Write. Although the book is addressed to helping children overcome writers' block, the title would also be appropriate for her autobiography. Janet has discovered that she really does have to write in order to be happy. This understanding did not come easily or early, however. Janet, the daughter of a Korean mother and Chinese American father, was the first person in her family to go to college.
She attended the University of California where she received a BA in history and graduated summa cum laude. During her college years she studied art history in France and then returned to found the UCLA Immigrant Children's Art Project, a program that worked with refugee children in the Los Angeles area. After graduation she was off to the east coast and Yale University where she received her J.D. degree, directed the Yale Law and Technology Association and worked for New Haven Legal Aid. With her law degree in hand she seemed to be on the fast track to success and wealth when she returned to California and began to practice corporate law. She worked for GTE and Universal Studios in Los Angeles and was promoted to the position of director of labor relations at Universal. At this point, however, she began to question the road she had taken. At Universal, Janet explains, "I was in charge of negotiating union contracts and firing people. One day I came home and said to my husband, 'You know I think I'm becoming a mean person.' I was 29 and I thought, 'what good is all that money if you're not happy.'"[2] Janet says that she tried to think of something important she could do with her life and that there was nothing more important that she could think of than working with kids. But she had worked as a substitute teacher while she was in New Haven and she knew she "couldn't survive in a classroom." One day when she was looking for a gift for a friend in a children's bookstore she ended up buying a whole stack of children's books for herself. "Someone has to write these books," she thought. "Maybe I could do that." Janet talked this over with her husband. She promised him, "I'm going to do this for a year. If at the end of the year I hadn't sold a book I'll go back to practicing law." She recalls, "My parents though I was a lunatic," but she approached her task as if it were a business. She took classes, did research, joined the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (http://www.scbwi.org/), and wrote and wrote and wrote. At the end of the year there was no contract. But her wonderful husband told her, "If you love it keep doing it." She did love it and she kept at it and after a year and a half she was given a contract for her first book, Good Luck Gold. As of this writing she has more than 17 books in print, books aimed at audiences from toddlers to adults. Most of her writing takes the form of poetry, including the upcoming, Minn and Jake, a novel in poems. Her poem, "Albert J. Bell" from a Suitcase of Seaweed was one of those chosen for the Poetry in Motion project and appeared on 5,000 subways and buses in New York City. Poems from Behind the Wheel were featured on a car-talk radio program.
Janet's cultural heritage has played a big part in her writing, inspiring books like Suitcase of Seaweed, The Trip Back Home, Apple Pie Fourth of July and other books. She states, "Culture is more about habit than anything else. Our habits, routines rituals-whether daily or annual, ours or those of our grandparents — these show who we are. In my writing I like to focus on the various cultures that define who I am now and who I was as a child."[3] This belief means that a book like Buzz reflects the routines of her own contemporary household while The Trip Back Home dwells on her grandparents' routine in rural Korea. Wherever she places her pen, or sends her imagination, Janet takes obvious delight in writing. Her courageous choice to turn her back on a high status career because she "had to write" is Hollywood's loss but our immeasurable gain.
[2] Unless otherwise noted the quotes in this profile were taken from personal interviews or correspondence with Janet. [3] "Author at a Glance, Janet S. Wong." Biographical handout, Harcourt Children's Books.
