Background

Ethnicity: Janet Siu Wong is the daughter of a Chinese-immigrant father and a Korean-immigrant mother.

Janet Siu Wong was born on September 30, 1962, in Los Angeles, California, United States to the family of Roger and Joyce Wong. Her parents met while her Chinese-immigrant father was serving in Korea in the United States Army. She grew up speaking neither Chinese nor Korean which was a painful experience for her. When Wong was seven, the family moved to San Anselmo in Marin Country, 20 miles northwest of San Francisco.

Education

As part of her undergraduate program at the University of California at Los Angeles, Janet S. Wong spent her junior year in France, studying art history at the Université de Bordeaux. When she returned from France, Janet founded the University of California, Los Angeles Immigrant Children's Art Project, a program focused on teaching refugee children to express themselves through art.

After graduating from the University of California, Los Angeles summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in history, Wong then obtained her Juris Doctor degree from Yale Law School, where she was a director of the Yale Law and Technology Association and worked for New Haven Legal Aid.

Career

Janet S. Wong worked as an attorney in Los Angeles, practicing corporate and labor law for GTE and Universal Studios until 1991. In 1991 Wong attended a workshop about writing for children which featured a reading by the poet Myra Cohn Livingston. Wong had such an intense emotional response to the reading that she subsequently chose to abandon her law career to pursue professional writing, although she continued to work as an arbitrator until 1995.

Success as a children's author did not come easily for Wong; she received over 20 rejection letters for her early picture book manuscripts, and felt “like a failure” after a year of writing. Her first book of poetry for young adults, Good Luck Gold and Other Poems was published in 1994, receiving a warm critical reception. Wong followed Good Luck Gold with several additional works of poetry, exploring themes related to her life and multi-ethnicity. In 1995 Wong served as Writer in Residence to the University of Southern California Writing Project, and in 1997, she served as a Visiting Author to the Singapore Society for Reading and Literacy.

Wong is the author of five collections of poetry and six picture books. Two new books will be published this fall: Minn and Jake (Foster/FSG) and Knock on Wood: Poems About Superstitions (McElderry/S&S). Her poems have been reprinted in many textbooks and anthologies, as well as in some more unusual venues. “Albert J. Bell” from A Suitcase of Seaweed was selected to appear on 5,000 subway and bus posters as part of the New York City Metropolitan Transit Authority's “Poetry in Motion” program, and poems from Behind the Wheel have been featured on a car-talk radio show.

Articles by and about Wong have appeared in Scholastic's Instructor magazine, Creative Classroom, Booklinks, and O magazine; Wong and her work have been featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show and other television programs.

Achievements

• Janet S. Wong's awards include the International Reading Association's “Celebrate Literacy Award,” presented by the Foothill Reading Council for exemplary service in the promotion of literacy, and honors from the Claremont Graduate School and Penn State University. She also has been appointed to the Commission on Literature of the National Council of Teachers of English. In April 2003 Wong was invited to read from her work at the annual White House Easter Egg Roll.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Declaration of Interdependence: Poems for an Election Year - Kindle edition by Janet Wong. Politics & Social Sciences Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.

    (Acclaimed poet Janet Wong is known for her eclectic range...)

    2012
  • A Suitcase of Seaweed and Other Poems

    (Reflecting a pride of her Chinese, Korean, and American b...)

    1996
  • Grump

    (An exuberant rhyme follows Mommy who is in a cranky mood ...)

    2001
  • Buzz

    (A child experiences the sights and sounds of morning - fr...)

    2000
  • Twist: Yoga Poems

    (Come explore yoga in a new way with TWIST, a collection o...)

    2007
  • Apple Pie Fourth of July

    (Shocked that her parents are cooking Chinese food to sell...)

    2006
  • Once Upon A Tiger: New Beginnings for Endangered Animals

    (Watercolor illustrations by Sladjana Vasic burst with per...)

    2011
  • This Next New Year

    (A young boy looks forward to the Lunar New Year, often ca...)

    2000
  • The Rainbow Hand: Poems About Mothers And Children

    (Enhanced with colorful artwork, this poetry collection ca...)

    1999
  • Behind the Wheel

    (From a backseat kiss to passing the driving test, this co...)

    1999
  • You Just Wait: A Poetry Friday Power Book

    (The book features twelve PowerPacks that use creative act...)

    2016
  • Good Luck Gold and Other Poems

    (Poems deal with the joys and sorrows of growing up Chines...)

    1994
  • The Dumpster Diver

    (One person’s trash is another persons' treasure in this v...)

    2007
  • Here We Go: A Poetry Friday Power Book

    (The book is a story in poems and a writing journal design...)

    2017
  • Knock on Wood: Poems About Superstitions

    (What superstitions do you follow? In this collection of o...)

    2003
  • Homegrown House

    (It takes time to settle into a house, to learn to love it...)

    2009
  • Before It Wriggles Away

    (Describes the creative processes and experiences of child...)

    2006
  • Minn and Jake

    (Do you ever feel like you've somehow lost your true best ...)

    2004
  • Night Garden: Poems From The World Of Dreams

    (Offers a beautifully illustrated collection of fifteen po...)

    2000
  • Me and Rolly Maloo

    (Would you cheat to be popular? Rolly Maloo is the most po...)

    2010
  • The Trip Back Home

    (These are the gifts brought across the ocean to Korea: Le...)

    2000
  • Alex and the Wednesday Chess Club

    (Alex first learned to play chess when he was four years o...)

    2004
  • The Mom Quiz: Tween Edition

    (Parenting can be like holding a ticking time bomb. You of...)

    2012
  • You Have to Write

    (You have to write! It's a class assignment. But you have ...)

    2002
  • Hide & Seek 2005
  • Minn and Jake's Almost Terrible Summer 2008
  • The Poetry of Science: The Poetry Friday Anthology for Science for Kids 2014

Connections

Janet S. Wong married an attorney Glenn Schroeder. They have a son Andrew.

Father:

Roger Wong

Mother:

Joyce Wong

husband:

Glenn Schroeder

Son:

Andrew Schroeder

mentor:

Myra Livingston

References

• Contemporary Authors, Vol. 166 This volume of Contemporary Authors contains biographical information on approximately 300 modern writers.
  1998