Patricia "Pat" Janus (April 20, 1932 – June 9, 2006) was an American poet, artist, and educator.
Biography
Born Patricia O'Brien to Thomas and Rose O'Brien, she was raised in
New York City where she worked for a brokerage firm. She met John "Jack" Janus (1910-1991), whom she married in the early 1950s. Her husband went on to become a
pharmacist
A pharmacist, also known as a chemist (Commonwealth English) or a druggist (North American and, archaically, Commonwealth English), is a healthcare professional who prepares, controls and distributes medicines and provides advice and instructi ...
, and his work eventually transplanted the family (which by then included two sons and one on the way) to
Rochester, NY.
Her work appeared in numerous literary publications, including ''
The Atlantic Monthly'', ''
Yankee'', ''
The National Catholic Reporter
The ''National Catholic Reporter'' (''NCR'') is a progressive national newspaper in the United States that reports on issues related to the Catholic Church. Based in Kansas City, Missouri, ''NCR'' was founded by Robert Hoyt in 1964. Hoyt wante ...
'' and ''
American Poetry Review
''The American Poetry Review'' (''APR'') is an American poetry magazine printed every other month on tabloid-sized newsprint. It was founded in 1972 by Stephen Berg and Stephen Parker in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The magazine's editor is Elizab ...
'', and was anthologized in several volumes, including ''Summer Songs'' (2004), ''Knocking on the Silence'' (2005), and ''The Pinnacle Hill Review''. Her collectionm ''Love in the Time of Anthrax'', was released by FootHills Publishing
in 2005. Her last volume is ''Synchronicity'', published by FootHills in June, 2006.
She was a member of
Rochester Poets Rochester Poets is the oldest ongoing literary organization in the upstate New York region. Founded in 1920 as the Rochester, New York, chapter of the Poetry Society of America, the group ceased its affiliation with the Society in the 1980s in order ...
since the late 1960s (when it was called The
Rochester Poetry Society) and served the organization in several posts, including more than one term as president.
She was also a member of a group of Rochester artists who meet weekly as the
Artists' Breakfast Group in the cafeteria of the
Bausch & Lomb headquarters in Rochester. She created a number of mixed media pieces over the years which were displayed in various area exhibits, including Rochester's
Center at High Falls Gallery, "Line Art", and the "16x20" and, in May 2006, "Text & Texture II", which featured what would be her final piece, "Pain."
She had a career as a hospital nurse; upon her retirement she worked in Rochester as a chaplain at
Highland Hospital, and an oncology nurse at the Rochester hospice, Isaiah House.
Battling cancer herself for nearly a year, she died on Friday, June 9, 2006, at age 74, at Highland Hospital. The night before, she had given a reading to a full house at
Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble Booksellers is an American bookseller. It is a Fortune 1000 company and the bookseller with the largest number of retail outlets in the United States. As of July 7, 2020, the company operates 614 retail stores across all 50 U. ...
in
Pittsford, NY
Pittsford is a town in Monroe County, New York. A suburb of Rochester, its population was 30,617 at the time of the 2020 census.
The Town of Pittsford (formerly part of the town of Northfield) was settled in 1789 and incorporated in 1796. The ...
for ''Synchronicity'', a collection of poems spanning the years since 1970. The book had just been released that day.
She continued her work as a chaplain and nurse up until a few weeks before her death and was still working on a chapbook of poems about New Mexico.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Janus, Patricia
1932 births
2006 deaths
Poets from New York (state)
American nurses
American women nurses
Deaths from liver cancer in New York (state)
Writers from New York City
Writers from Rochester, New York
American women poets
20th-century American poets
20th-century American women writers
21st-century American women