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Writing Seminars
Jane has been teaching her seminars on professional writing for more than 15 years now, and the classes continue to evolve in response to the conversations that emerge in class. Jane continues to develop more useful and practical lessons to help solve the everyday problems of writing in the workplace, whether you write analytical reports, official correspondence, or simply the usual slew of daily emails.
Acclaimed as a "Master Teacher" and an "expert on the English language," she has given her writing seminars across Alaska, Hawaii, and the Pacific Northwest for a variety of clients including the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, the International Pacific Halibut Commission, and the U.S. Forest Service.
Participants have unanimously acclaimed the seminar both for its content and the instructor's ability to communicate and inspire:
"Jim Hale's unique blend of technical mastery, practical experience, and superlative teaching abilities makes this simply the most useful writing course I've ever had."
"The course not only showed us how to think clearly and write well; the instructor's enthusiasm for his subject is an inspiration to write better!"
The writing instructor
formerly known as Jim
Jane Hale came out as non-binary in February 2022 and changed her legal name to Jane Agnes Hale. Born and raised in New Jersey within sight of the Manhattan skyline, she worked her way through college after a stint in the U.S. Navy. After taking a BA in Literature, Jane went to graduate school at Rutgers University, where she was awarded two major fellowships: the Marion Johnson Fellowship from the Graduate School of Rutgers University and the Jacob K. Javits Fellowship from the U.S. Department of Higher Education. She also spent a semester on a Folger Fellowship studying at the Folger Institute for Renaissance Studies in Washington DC
After taking an MA and MPhil in Early English Literature, Jane moved west to take a position as an assistant professor at Central Washington University. In 1995, she left academics to work as a writer for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Juneau, Alaska. She retired from public service in 2016.
Jane continues to teach her popular Writing for the Workplace seminars around Alaska and the American West. She has also taught writing (and Latin, to a few intrepid souls) as a volunteer at the Lemon Creek Correctional Center in Juneau.
The Writing for the Workplace seminars have been taken by staff at virtually all State of Alaska departments as well as by staff at various municipal, state, federal, and international agencies in Washington, California, Oregon, Idaho, and Hawaii.
From September 2014 to December 2016, Jane published a bi-weekly column "On Writing" in the Juneau Empire and Capital City Weekly--for which the Alaska Press Club awarded her the Suzan Nightingale Columnist of the Year Prize for two straight years. She has published essays on a wide range of topics from medieval paintings and Renaissance poetry to Jewish punk music and life in Southeast Alaska.
Jane is currently publishing in the Juneau Empire a bi-weekly chronicle of her coming out as non-binary.
Under her nom de guerre Johnny Negotiable, Jane hosts a radio show on KRNN Juneau, 102.7 FM, on Friday mornings from 10 to Noon--a music show that she refers to affectionately as "Episodes in the History of Noise."