Looking Backward, Going Forward

Winner of the 2025 President's Award in the Autobiography/Memoir category, from FAPA (Florida Authors and Publishers Association), LOOKING BACKWARD, GOING FORWARD: Reflections on a Writer's Life offer readers a chance to learn about the life of an award-winning author of more than 60 books, translated into 36 languages. Jan started her writing journey at the age of ten when she wrote a novel to fill in the time since she found herself a latchkey kid two days a week. Her mother, a kindergarten teacher, and her father, a dentist, worked till late.
Jan takes up through the ups and downs of her career including how she sold her first nonfiction book, a groundbreaking history of vegetarianism, when she was 25 to Scribner after working on it for several years, including sending herself to India and to Germany to research the book including interviewing Albert Speer and one of Hitler's secretaries to confirm or refute that Hitler was a vegetarian.
Over the years, Jan has worked fulltime in publishing, first at Macmillan and then at Grove Press, learning all facets of trade publishing from founder and CEO Barney Rosset. That was followed by years in graduate school studying criminal justice (obtaining an MA) and getting her Ph.D. in sociology.
In addition to teaching college, after publishing several books with such major houses as Scribner, Prentice-Hall, and Doubleday, Jan founded her own indie press, Hannacroix Creek Books, in 1996, although she continues to selectively publish with other companies including Simon & Schuster (When Friendship Hurts, 2023, 2002, in 29 languages) and her textbook, Essentials of Victimology (Aspen Publishing, 2025, 2022).
Jan shares about her personal life including when she hit rock bottom after dropping out of college in her third semester, her first marriage, that started off tragically a week after her 23 year old brother Seth was murdered in a robbery/homicide.
Her first marriage ended after three years but thirteen years later, Jan put two ads in New York magazine when she was a successful, 35-year-old Assistant Professor at a college on Long Island. Everyone thought she had it all and couldn't understand why she even wanted to get married again. But Jan wanted to share her life with that special someone and to have a family. Fred, an award-winning writer, answered her second ad and, 23 days later, they surprised everyone when they got married. They have raised two sons, Scott and Jeff, now grown up with families of their own.

PRAISE for LOOKING BACKWARD, GOING FORWARD: Reflections on a Writer's Life:
�A fascinating autobiography that takes the reader behind the scenes of a life well-lived as an author and freelance writer. Full of personal anecdotes and insights; rich in drive and passion.�
�Helen Errington, writer and editor

About the Author
Jan Yager (a/k/a Janet Barkas) is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Sociology Department of John Jay College of Criminal Justice. A book coach and workshop leader, Jan's been on several cross-country and three international author tours to Sweden, Australia and New Zealand, and throughout the UK. The major talk shows she's been interviewed on include The View, Today Show, Good Morning America, Oprah, CBS This Morning, CBS Sunday Morning, To Tell the Truth, and many more.

For more on Jan, visit https://www.drjanyager.com