Question of the Day: Encouraging Conversation and Connection

Saturday, April 5th
3:45-4:30
Shadows-on-the-Teche Visitors Center
320 East Main St.

Jan Risher took the long way to get from Mississippi to Louisiana. She is Louisiana Culture Editor at The Advocate, Times-Picayune and The Acadiana Advocate. 

Through the years, she has woven in and out of teaching, writing, reporting and entrepreneurship — often in unexpected ways. Relying on unrestrained curiosity along with her varied professional interests and skills, she has found ways to visit 49 countries and 46 states thus far. 

Jan writes three columns a week. Her Sunday column, titled Long Story Short, is largely about the human condition, the community, other cultures, food, family, failures and triumphs has been published weekly since February 2002.

Risher has a new book, titled: “Q of the D: Encouraging Conversation and Connection” features daily questions designed to spur meaningful exchanges between family and friends — with space to write the answers of those sitting around a table, creating a combination  time capsule/treasure chest. 

In October 2018, the University of Louisiana Press published her book, “Looking to the Stars from Old Algiers and other Long Stories Short,” a collection of newspaper columns published between 2002 and 2017. She is also the co-author of “Team Renaissance: The Art, Science and Politics of Great Teams.” Additionally, she has ghostwritten several business books and memoirs. She was awarded the Brush Creek Arts Foundation Fellowship and Residency in Wyoming in 2019 and the New Start Fellowship at West Virginia University in 2021-2022, for which she earned her Master’s degree in Journalism and New Media. 

Risher is passionate about doing her part to make the world a better place and encouraging others to do the same. She and her husband moved to Baton Rouge on the first day of spring in 2022. They are parents of two twenty-something-year-old daughters, Greer and Piper. 

Risher is a skateboarding champion.