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Slow Learner
Slow Learner is like a walk through the woods with your smartest, funniest, most observant friend-in the excellent company of at least two dogs. Afterward? Wine by the fire. And all the cheese. -Jill Christman, author of If This Were A Love Story in Essays
What I admire about Slow Learner by Jan Shoemaker is the entire her range, her seemingly effortless eye for literary effects, and her complete control of tone. By range I mean she can go from meringue to mystery in a phrase and by literary effects I mean she successfully pulls off more surprises in a paragraph than most writers do in an entire essay. As for tone, she moves assuredly from ridicule to reverence and back, hitting all the emotions in between in every single essay. I laughed all the way through this heartbreaking book. In her view we live in a miracle and are committing a tragedy. No one has said that with more grace, honesty, and generosity of spirit than Jan Shoemaker. -Steven Harvey, author of The Beloved Republic
If I can't have Jan Shoemaker living next door, and I have accepted that cruel fact, at least I can read every word of Slow Learner from cover to cover and then read it again. The only other insurmountable problem is that I wish I had written it. -Abigail Thomas, author of What Comes Next and How to Like It
What I admire about Slow Learner by Jan Shoemaker is the entire her range, her seemingly effortless eye for literary effects, and her complete control of tone. By range I mean she can go from meringue to mystery in a phrase and by literary effects I mean she successfully pulls off more surprises in a paragraph than most writers do in an entire essay. As for tone, she moves assuredly from ridicule to reverence and back, hitting all the emotions in between in every single essay. I laughed all the way through this heartbreaking book. In her view we live in a miracle and are committing a tragedy. No one has said that with more grace, honesty, and generosity of spirit than Jan Shoemaker. -Steven Harvey, author of The Beloved Republic
If I can't have Jan Shoemaker living next door, and I have accepted that cruel fact, at least I can read every word of Slow Learner from cover to cover and then read it again. The only other insurmountable problem is that I wish I had written it. -Abigail Thomas, author of What Comes Next and How to Like It
190 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2024
3 people are currently reading
7 people want to read
About the author
Jan Shoemaker
9 books7 followersJan Shoemaker grew up in Saginaw, Michigan. Shortly after finishing her B.A. in English at Michigan State University, she moved to Seattle where she waited tables at the Pike Place Market and wrote poems while she rode ferries around Puget Sound. In the years that followed, she wrote poems while waitressing on the Maine coast and in Rhode Island. Eventually, she returned to Lansing Michigan to be closer to her family and make a career in education.
She has been teaching high school in mid-Michigan for twenty-eight years, first for the Diocese of Lansing and currently at a public high school outside the city. She sees her real imprint on her school’s curriculum in the World’s Religions class affording her students field trips to synagogues and churches and mosques, as well as a Hindu Temple, and a Buddhist monastery. She is a recipient of the Greater Lansing United Nation Association’s Loy LaSalle Award for outstanding contributions to Global Education and International Understanding. In addition to teaching, she is a part-time bookseller at independently owned and run Schuler Books in Okemos, Michigan.
Her work has been featured on public radio, anthologized, and published in many magazines and journals including River Teeth, The Sun, Fourth Genre, Colorado Review, Upstreet, and Sufi Journal. She earned an MFA at Ashland University. In 2016 her first book Flesh and Stones, Fieldnotes on a Finite World was published by the Ohio based Bottom Dog Press.
She has been teaching high school in mid-Michigan for twenty-eight years, first for the Diocese of Lansing and currently at a public high school outside the city. She sees her real imprint on her school’s curriculum in the World’s Religions class affording her students field trips to synagogues and churches and mosques, as well as a Hindu Temple, and a Buddhist monastery. She is a recipient of the Greater Lansing United Nation Association’s Loy LaSalle Award for outstanding contributions to Global Education and International Understanding. In addition to teaching, she is a part-time bookseller at independently owned and run Schuler Books in Okemos, Michigan.
Her work has been featured on public radio, anthologized, and published in many magazines and journals including River Teeth, The Sun, Fourth Genre, Colorado Review, Upstreet, and Sufi Journal. She earned an MFA at Ashland University. In 2016 her first book Flesh and Stones, Fieldnotes on a Finite World was published by the Ohio based Bottom Dog Press.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 22, 2025
These are some amazing, funny and heartwarming essays. Take your time, savor and enjoy.
I had to keep a dictionary handy…but it was worth it. 😅 My vocabulary has grown and so has my appreciation for Jan’s life experiences.
I had to keep a dictionary handy…but it was worth it. 😅 My vocabulary has grown and so has my appreciation for Jan’s life experiences.
February 10, 2024
I loved this collection of essays from a gifted author. It is very thought provoking. Thank you Jan for sharing your stories.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews