Besides being a teacher/professor, Jane is a writer. Her writing is both scholarly and literary. She published her first poem in a literary journal in 1973 and her first short story the same year. She published her first scholarly article in a scholarly journal in 1979.
Jane has traveled to six continents (except for Antarctica) to speak, consult, and visit as a tourist. She is a constant reader. A movie buff, for years she taught a capstone graduate seminar called Teachers in Film. She is a news junkie. She also enjoys watching television and subscribes to several cable and streaming services.
Jane is the recipient of the Mensa Education and Research Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award, and the National Association for Gifted Children Distinguished Scholar Award. She has published many articles, studies and chapters in peer-reviewed books and journals. She is on the editorial boards of several scholarly journals.
Jane received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Northern Michigan University, her undergraduate alma mater. She has been a member of the Board of Directors of the National Association for Gifted Children, was the recipient of a Distinguished Achievement Award from the Ohio Association for Gifted Children and was named an Ohio Magazine Distinguished Educator. She has received the Torrance Creativity Award and the Creativity Award from the World Council for Gifted and Talented Children. She has taught and worked with students at every grade from pre-K to doctoral levels. She is a former principal of the Hunter College Elementary School.
Jane has received Individual Artist Fellowships in poetry and in prose from the Ohio Arts Council, and her poems have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She is a past chair of the Ohio Arts Council Literature Panel. She is listed in the Directory of American Poets and Writers as both a poet and a writer. She has received over $1 million in grants from educational entities, most notably the Ohio Department of Education.
Jane is the author of 14 books, 6 chapbooks, and one edited book. Her single-authored books are Creativity for 21st Century Skills, Understanding Creativity; “My Teeming Brain”: Understanding Creative Writers; Understanding Those Who Create(two editions); Talented Children and Adults: Their Development and Education (3 editions). She co-authored Luovuus (Creativity). Literary books available on Kindle and Nook are The Three-Week Trance Diet (novel); A Location in the Upper Peninsula (collected poems, stories, essays); The Arrest (novel); Labyrinth (novella). Also available on Kindle and Nook are Guidance and Counseling the Gifted and Talented; and The Piirto Pyramid. Her poetry books are Saunas and several poetry chapbooks.
Jane lives in Columbus, Ohio, and Ishpeming, Michigan. She has two children and one granddaughter.
Website: https://janepiirto.com