Jana Richman came to writing relatively late in life, but she enjoyed early success, placing essays in literary journals and earning widespread praise for her first book, “Riding in the Shadows of Saints: A Woman’s Story of Motorcycling the Mormon Trail,” published the year before she turned 50.
Three more books followed. Richman, suddenly, was an author.
“I thought my career had started, and it would flow from there for as long as I kept writing,’” she said. “But I was naive. Even with a wonderful agent, every book I wrote was harder to sell than the prior one.”
In today’s publishing world, most writers are savvy about social media and reader outreach, and publishers expect that from their authors. But that’s not something Richman is interested in doing — she’s naturally introverted and has no online social presence beyond a website.
“The publishing scene has changed and evolved in directions that I’m unsuited for,” Richman said.
Upon this worrisome realization, Richman considered walking away from her writing practice—and tried multiple times—but it kept pulling her back. Eventually, a shift in perspective and approach opened the door to a new phase of writing.
“I started to pull in a bit and reevaluate,” she said. “I refocused on the creative process and started to have fun again. I began writing with sparks of anticipation and curiosity, and it felt right. I realized that publication was incidental to my creative life.”
Her output changed, too: Richman began writing very short pieces — flash fiction and nonfiction — and poetry, too. She started playing with words, playing with sentences and rediscovering her love of the intricacies of the craft.
At PMRCAA she intends to open herself up to creativity, however it may happen.
You can hear from Jana at the Studio Tour alongside writer Dina Abdulhadi and textile artist Jingyi Yang on Thursday, May 7 from 5-6:30 p.m.
