This Goodly Land

Janice N. Harrington (September 9, 1956–present)

Alabama Connections

• Vernon, Lamar County: birthplace, childhood residence

Selected Works

• Harrington, Janice N. Going North. Illus. Jerome Lagarrigue. New York: Melanie Kroupa Books, 2004. For younger readers.
• Harrington, Janice N. Even the Hollow My Body Made Is Gone: Poems. Rochester, N.Y.: BOA Editions, Ltd., 2007.
• Harrington, Janice N. The Chicken-Chasing Queen of Lamar County. Illus. Shelley Jackson. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007. For younger readers.

Literary Awards

• Nebraska Book Award, Nebraska Center for the Book, 2005, for Going North
• Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Award, New York Public Library and Ezra Jack Keats Foundation, 2005, for Going North
• A. Poulin, Jr., Poetry Prize, BOA Editions, Ltd., 2006, for From the Shadows' Darkness, published as Even the Hollow My Body Made Is Gone
• Alabama Author Award, Alabama Library Association, 2007, for Going North
• Alabama Author Award, Alabama Library Association, 2009, for The Chicken-Chasing Queen of Lamar County

Biographical Information

Janice Harrington was born and spent her early childhood in Vernon, Ala. When she was eight, her family moved to Nebraska. Harrington attended the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, graduating with a BS in Education in 1978. She worked as a public school teacher in Omaha, Neb., from 1979 to 1980. In 1981, Harrington earned an MA in Library Science from the University of Iowa. During the 1980s, she worked as a librarian in Iowa, Illinois, and Louisiana. Harrington became the head of youth services at the public library in Champaign, Ill., in 1990. She worked as a professional storyteller from 1984 to 2002. Her first book, Going North, published in 2004, retold the story of her family’s move from Alabama to Nebraska. Harrington began publishing her poems in literary magazines in the late 1990s. A collection of her poems was published in 2007.

Interests and Themes

Janice Harrington writes poetry about her experience as a black woman in America. Her books for children are inspired by her childhood in rural Alabama.

For More Information

Please check your local library for these materials. If items are not available locally, your librarian can help you borrow them through the InterLibrary Loan program. Your librarian can also help you find other information about this author.

There may be more information available through the databases in the Alabama Virtual Library. If you are an Alabama citizen, AVL can be used at your public library or school library media center. You can also get a username and password from your librarian to use AVL at home.

Reference Book Chapters and Encyclopedia Entries

• Miller, Corki, and Mary Ellen Snodgrass. "Janice N. Harrington"; Storytellers: A Biographical Directory of 120 English-Speaking Performers Worldwide. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, . .

Reference Web Sites

• Kelley, Joyce. "Janice Harrington". The Encyclopedia of Alabama. 2009. Alabama Humanities Foundation and Auburn University. http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-2435.

Photo by Jon Dessen-Illini Studio; courtesy of Janice N. Harrington.

Last updated on Aug 28, 2009.