Jan Freeman, a vigorous advocate of Rukeyser’s work and vision, is a woman who values and brings into focus other women’s work. She founded Paris Press in 1995 for the express purpose of publishing literature by women that had been overlooked and undervalued over the years. Paris Press, which closed in 2018 and is now housed at Wesleyan University Press, published works by writers such as Virginia Woolf, Emily Dickinson, Ruth Stone, Zdena Berger, and most notably, Muriel Rukeyser. Freeman loved Rukeyser from the time she was in college.

Muriel Rukeyser is the reason Freeman started Paris Press in the first place. Muriel Rukeyser’s The Life of Poetry had been out of print for decades until Freeman brought it back by republishing it through Paris Press in 1996 as a revised edition of the earlier text, originally published in 1949. In her prefatory note, Freeman explains how essential a work The Life of Poetry is: “Rukeyser examines the ways in which poetry can revive democracy and improve the quality of life for the people of the United States, and for poets, artists, and creative individuals everywhere … Remarkably, Rukeyser’s words are as necessary and provocative now as when the book was first published, in 1949.”

And this was just the beginning. A few years later, in 1997, Paris Press published a new edition of The Orgy: An Irish Journey of Passion and Transformation, first issued in 1965, a book so original that it went quickly out of print.  Based on Rukeyser’s journal notes, Orgy captures her experiences at Puck Fair, “the last existing pagan festival of the goat.”

Years later, Freeman came upon an unpublished Rukeyser manuscript in the Library of Congress on the legendary escape artist Harry Houdini, entitled Houdini: A Musical. Freeman went on a three-year journey to acquire the rights to publish Houdini through Paris Press. Perusing Rukeyser’s will, she found out that Rukeyser had left the manuscript to her agent and partner Monica McCall, who in her own will passed it on to Kitty Graham. Freeman’s persistence paid off, and she was finally able to publish Rukeyser’s play in 2002, in a beautiful edition with cover art by Sidney Radner. Thanks to this published edition of the play, Eastern Michigan University was able to produce four performances of Houdini in the Spring of 2022.  

Besides her tireless championing of Rukeyser’s works and vision, Jan Freeman is an award winning poet and the author of several books of poems, including Blue Structure, Simon Says, Hyena, and more. Born in 1957, she describes herself as “Jewish, a lesbian, a poet, a feminist, and a Democrat.”  She currently lives in Ashfield, MA where she hosts writing workshops and poetry retreats as well as offering editing and coaching services to help out fellow writers. 

Works

Rukeyser-focused Paris Press Editions:

The Life of Poetry (1996)

The Orgy: An Irish Journey of Passion and Transformation (1997)

Houdini: A Musical (2002)

Poetry:

Hyena (Cleveland State University Press, 1993)

Autumn Sequence (Paris Press, 1993)

Simon Says (Paris Press, 2000)

Blue Structure (Calypso Editions, 2016)

Select Presentations and Interviews:

Ex Libris – Jan Freeman on Muriel Rukeyser, June 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KRGZD543Ss 

Jan Freeman interviewed by Madeleine Adolph, April 8, 2020, https://smith.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Embed.aspx?id=7b9d583f-a740-4bd5-a8fe-ae21013de83a 

“‘Let me see, let me feel, let me know what is real’: Publishing Houdini, A Musical.” Houdini Webinanar, Eastern Michigan University, March 20, 2022, https://murielrukeyser.org/locks-keys-freedom-muriel-rukeysers-houdini-and-the-public-role-of-poetry/houdini-webinar-11am-march-20-2022/ 

To cite this entry: Ayah Awada, “Rukeyser Trailblazer Jan Freeman,” Muriel Rukeyser: A Living Archive, 2026, https://murielrukeyser.org/2026/09/04/rukeyser-trailblazer-jan-freeman/