Janet Sunderland teaches writing and literature in the Avila Advantage program and Creative Nonfiction in the traditional program.  She grew up on a Kansas homestead in Marshall County, Kansas - a homestead that remains in the family and is now planted to native prairie.  She and her husband Cliff Kroski retreat to the quiet of wind and tallgrass in the summer.  In the years between the farm in Kansas and teaching in Kansas City, she also lived throughout the U.S., in Europe, Mexico, and the Caribbean.  She moved to Kansas City in 1999.  She holds a BFA from Kansas State University and a graduate degree from St. John’s College, a Great Books Program, in Santa Fe.

Janet is both a professional actor and a writer in addition to being a teacher.  She completed work on a film earlier this year, provisionally titled Hope, which is projected to be released in Kansas City in late October.  She also recently completed work on a Creative Nonfiction memoir, Standing at the Crossroad.  Her essays and poetry have been published in The Chicago Tribune, The Kansas City Star, The Writer, KC Voices, The Rockhurst Review and other publications and have won prizes with The Oklahoma Writers Federation, The Kansas Writers Club, and the Springfield Writers Guild.  She’s a member of AWP, Kansas City Writers Group, and Missouri Writers Guild.