Janice BethanyView profile
Lecturer
Janice Bethany serves as a Lecturer in the College of Human Sciences and Humanities at the University of Houston-Clear Lake, teaching Written Communications in Business and Advanced Technical Writing. Her professional background includes corporate editing for Superfund proposals and environmental studies in Latin America, enriching her pedagogical approach with real-world application. She maintains an active creative writing practice specializing in ekphrasis—literary responses to visual art—with works engaging artists like Mark Rothko and Augustus John. Her educational foundation comprises: Master of Arts in English from Wichita State University (Thesis: T.S. Eliot) Post-graduate coursework in Creative Writing and Literature at the University of Houston-Main Bethany's scholarly focus bridges Technical Writing and Business Writing with Rhetoric and Composition theory, while her creative practice centers on ekphrasis . This interdisciplinary work demands rigorous research into artistic techniques, historical contexts, and cultural significance, producing poetry and fiction that interpret visual masterpieces through literary lenses. Her methodology exemplifies the convergence of academic rigor and artistic innovation. Her recent publications reveal consistent engagement with ekphrastic traditions across diverse artistic subjects, appearing in international competitions like the Ekphrastic Review Challenge (Toronto) and the Toledo Museum of Art Ekphrastic Competition. These works span medical journals ( Anesthesiology ), poetry calendars, and specialized art competitions, demonstrating remarkable versatility in form and context while maintaining thematic coherence through art-inspired narrative. Her competitive recognitions include: O'Bheal Five Words Competition (Cork Ireland, 2020) - 'Father’s Day' Texas Poetry Calendar 2021 (Kallisto Gaia Press, 2020) - 'Limes Turning Blue' Toledo (OH) Museum of Art Ekphrastic Competition (2020) - 'On a Gray Scale' Ekphrastic Review Challenge (Toronto, Canada, 2020) - 'The Thinkers' Letheon Competition (Anesthesiology, Lippincott Williams, 2019) - 'From Room 1000' Ekphrastic Review Challenge (Toronto, Canada, 2019) - 'Rearranged in Strange Light' Craven Arts Council Ekphrastic Competition (New Bern, NC, 2020) - 'Sunshine of the Almost-Spotless Mind' Ekphrastic Review Challenge (Toronto, Canada, 2019) - 'Tally Ho' Ekphrastic Review Challenge (Toronto, Canada, 2019) - 'Two Booths, Red Floor' While Bethany mentors students in business and technical writing courses, no formal graduate advisement or externally funded research grants are documented. Her professional emphasis remains on classroom instruction and individual creative production rather than large-scale collaborative research initiatives. Operating independently without laboratory or research team affiliations, Bethany cultivates artistic autonomy through competition participation and literary publication. This solitary creative practice enables deep engagement with visual art traditions while contributing to contemporary ekphrastic discourse across international platforms.
