Jan Hanson

Jan Hanson has more than 30 years of experience writing in the business world, and writing poetry in a parallel universe. Her earliest experience was as an eligibility worker for the department of social services, where hand-writing narratives documenting contact with clients was a daily requirement. Her work as advertising coordinator for a cattleman’s association publication brought new opportunities for written communication. And her decades-long career in human resources saw the evolution from formal letter-writing and file documentation hammered out on a Selectric typewriter, to complex and detailed electronic documentation of all
manner of investigations and complaints. In school, she studied organizational development, which gave her tools for a successful career. But it was what she experienced in writing workshops, held in living rooms, sun porches, and small gatherings under pine trees, that made poetry happen. She is a human resources director who lives in Orange, California, having lived parts of her life in Texas and Florida. She participates in writing workshops, and sings backup in a country band. Her work has appeared in Southwest American Literature and Writers’ Journal, and her first published chapbook, I’ll Never Play the Hammered Dulcimer, will be released
January 4, 2019, by Finishing Line Press.