Janet Ruhe-Schoen

Janet Ruhe-Schoen's most recent book is Champions of Oneness: Louis Gregory and His Shining Circle, published by the Baha'i Publishing Trust in 2015, telling the story of the indomitable African-American lawyer who pioneered the integration of the Baha'i community and its surroundings during the first half of the 20th Century, traveling fearlessly through the deep south, braving murderous Jim Crow conditions. It also tells of outstanding people who worked with him including Mirza Abu'l-Fadl, Roy Williams and Zia Bagdadi. Champions of Oneness follows Rejoice in My Gladness: The Life of Tahirih, published by the Baha'i Publishing Trust, 2011, which relates the passionate and dramatic life of Tahirih Qurratu'l-Ayn, the Iranian mystic poet who unveiled herself before a gathering of men in 1848 and sacrificed her life shortly afterward in her continuing insistence on freedom of faith for herself, women, and humanity. The book demonstrates Tahirih's universal importance to human development. Janet's first book, A Love Which Does Not Wait, published by Palabra Publications in 1998, is now in its second edition as a paperback. With its nine warmly human life-sketches of Baha'i teachers who pioneered world peace, it has become an inspirational favorite among Baha'i and others. Her book The Nightingale, Baha'u'llah/ El Ruisenor, Baha'u'llah, stories of the founder of the Baha'i Faith, originally written in Spanish, is not available at the moment plans are underway for a second edition. Janet is primarily a poet, which is apparent in the verbal music of her style, and also a collagist working in mixed media creating visual poems. Born in Allentown, Pa., in 1950, she's lived in various parts of the U.S. and Latin America and worked as a journalist, ESL teacher, library clerk, actress, vocalist, translator and playwright among other things. She now lives in Arizona and is currently developing a play about Tahirih which will be produced in 2018. Janet can be reached via https://www.facebook.com/JanetRuheSchoen.authorandartist