Janine DeBaise

Janine DeBaise teaches writing and literature at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) in Syracuse, New York. Her academic work has been published in journals such as Hybrid Pedagogy and Writing on the Edge. Her reflections about teaching in a living/learning community appeared in the book Building and Sustaining Learning Communities by Hurd and Stein. Her scholarly work and book reviews have appeared in the anthology Ecocritical Aesthetics: Language, Beauty, and the Environment from Indiana University Press and the journal Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and the Environment (ISLE).

Her work on ecofeminism has been included in anthologies by the MIT Press, Indiana University Press, and Colgate University Press. Through her creative and scholarly endeavors, DeBaise delves into topics such as the treatment of the human body by the dominant culture, the correlation between misogyny and environmental degradation, and the role of connection to place in fostering environmental stewardship.
She is the author of the poetry book Body Language and the poetry chapbook Of a Feather . Her poetry has appeared in numerous journals including  Portland Review,  North American Review, and Poetry International.

Her creative non-fiction has appeared in The Hopper, Southwest Review, and Orion Magazine. Her essays have appeared in the anthology Why We’re Here: New York Essayists on Living Upstate published by Colgate University Press and the anthology Companions in Wonder: Children and Adults Exploring Nature Together from MIT Press.

She won the 2020 Vinnie Ream Medal, a national competition across three genres (poetry, nonfiction, and fiction) for her essay The Space Between which was published in the 2019 edition of The Hopper from Green Writers' Press. Her writing received an Honorable Mention from the New Millennium Writing Competition and Special Merit from the New Women’s Voices Poetry Chapbook Contest. She has given poetry readings all over the country.

From 1989 to 1993, Janine worked as editor-in-chief of Central New York Environment, a regional environmental publication. She has served on the executive council of the Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment (ASLE)  where she is co-founder and co-organizer of the  Creative Caucus. She is the education editor for Terrain.org.

Janine has taught creative writing workshops for young children, for teenagers, and adults. She's read her creative work at art museums, nature centers, coffee houses, academic conferences, bookstores, and bars. She's judged creative writing competitions for local events such as the NAACP Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological, and Scientific Olympics in the Syracuse area high schools, and international competitions, such as the ASLE Environmental Creative Writing Book Award. Some of her poetry hangs in public areas in Syracuse through the Syracuse Poster Project and the Poetry in Flight program.