Life

She graduated from the NYU Graduate Creative Writing Program.

In 2001, Jan Richman and Beth Lisick

Beth Lisick

Beth Lisick is an American writer, performer, and author of four books. With Arline Klatte, she co-founded the Porchlight Storytelling Series of open-mic spoken word performances in San Francisco in 2002. Her spoken word performances were featured at the Lollapalooza festival in 1994, the South by...

 presented a benefit "Poetry & Pizza," by 9x9 Industries. She worked at SF Gate, the online version of the San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco Chronicle

thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...

. She read at Edinburgh Castle, and Writers With Drinks

Writers With Drinks

Writers With Drinks is an award-winning literary event that has run monthly since 2001 in San Francisco, California. It is a spoken word variety show hosted by Charlie Jane Anders, who MCs and introduces the six readers from six different genres including literary fiction, poetry, stand-up comedy,...

Her poems have appeared in The Nation, Ploughshares, Comet, Other Magazine, The Bloomsbury Review, Luna,

In 2001, she co-edited the literary journal 6,500.

Richman now teaches at the City College of San Francisco

City College of San Francisco

City College of San Francisco, or CCSF, is a two-year community college in San Francisco, California. The Ocean Avenue campus, in the Ingleside neighborhood, is the college's primary location...

, and lives in San Francisco, California

San Francisco, California

San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...

. Her sister is a teacher at Publication Design and Hypermedia Technology, McGill University

McGill University

Mohammed Fathy is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Glasgow, Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university...

.

Controversy

From 2001 until 2004, she taught at the Academy of Art University

Academy of Art University

The Academy of Art University , a for-profit university owned by the Stephens Institute, was founded in San Francisco, California in 1929 by Richard S. Stephens...

, where there was a controversy about a student composition.
Alan Kaufman

Alan Kaufman

Alan Kaufman is an American novelist, memoirist and poet who was instrumental in the development of the Spoken Word movement in literature. He is the author of the memoir Jew Boy, the novel Matches, and is listed as editor of The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry.He is also listed as co-editor of The...

 took up the cause of the student's expulsion and Richman's firing by organizing protests against the academy's response. Kaufman was later dismissed from his job at the academy because of his role in leading protests about the controversy. In support of Kaufman's protest against the student's expulsion, authors Stephen King

Stephen King

Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...

 and Salman Rushdie (at the time, Rushdie was President of the PEN American Center

PEN American Center

PEN American Center , founded in 1922 and based in New York City, works to advance literature, to defend free expression, and to foster international literary fellowship. The Center has a membership of 3,300 writers, editors, and translators...

) wrote letters of protest concerning the academy's handling of the matter.

The incident inspired a play Harmless, by Brett Neveu

Brett Neveu

Brett Neveu is an American playwright, and ensemble member at A Red Orchid Theatre in Chicago.-Work:His works have been produced at The Royal Court Theatre, The Royal Shakespeare Company, A Red Orchid Theatre, The House Theatre, Goodman Theatre, TimeLine Theatre Company, Writers' Theater and 29th...

.

Awards

• 1994 Walt Whitman Award chosen by Robert Pinsky
  Robert Pinsky
  Robert Pinsky is an American poet, essayist, literary critic, and translator. From 1997 to 2000, he served as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. Pinsky is the author of nineteen books, most of which are collections of his own poetry...
  
  
• 1993 "Discovery"/The Nation Award
• National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship
• Felix Pollack Poetry Prize
• Celia B. Wagner Award.

Poetry Books

• Because the Brain Can Be Talked Into Anything (Louisiana State University Press, 1995),

Ploughshares

Reviews

The rowdy, restless intelligence of Jan Richman's work is not just for show: these poems have a sense of purpose. They establish an identity--sexual, personal, social, historical--for which survival means defiance, resisting all sorts of expectations, cants, conventions, rote or cautionary voices. Richman's wit is ready to question anything, including the poses of identity itself. This ardent, sardonic skepticism, directed toward inner as well as outer voices, is reflected by the titles of the book's two sections: "Part I, Reasons" and "Part II, Excuses."

External links

• "The Tail Taboo" Commverge Magazine