As she describes in her own autobiographical writings, Riess was born in the Midwestern United States, and has an older brother, John.[1]: 58, 168 She and her mother Phyllis[2]: xix were, per her description, abandoned by her father without warning in 1984,[1]: 166–9 by which time her brother was on his own.[citation needed] Riess has described her father, who died at age 71 in Mobile, Alabama, in October 2010,[1]: 166–9 as "an angry atheist" and her mother as "considerably more charitable but no more interested in organized religion."[1]: 1
This section needs expansion with: a standard full description of her academic and writing career based on third-party sources. You can help by adding to it. (April 2023)
A member of the LDS Church, Riess has spoken at Brigham Young University Women's Conference and other gatherings of the LDS Church, as well as professional conferences.[citation needed]
Writings
This section needs expansion with: a full scholarly representation on this scholar's writings, based on third party sources. You can help by adding to it. (April 2023)
On October 4, 2009, Riess began a project to tweet the bible. Her "Twible" quest concluded in January 2013. Each tweet summarizes a chapter of the bible. Riess tweets the bible in order and plans to hit all 1,189 chapters in 140 characters.[8] She later published it in book form as The Twible: All the Chapters of the Bible in 140 Characters or Less . . . Now with 68% More Humor![9]
As of 2017, she was conducting "The Next Mormons" survey project to look at how different generations of Mormons have interacted with the Church.[11][needs update]
—— (2001), "Mormon Fast and Testimony Meetings", in Colleen McDannell (ed.), Religions of the United States in Practice, vol. 2, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, pp. 67–71, ISBN0-691-01001-3
—— (2001), "The Latter-day Saint Word of Wisdom", Religions of the United States in Practice, vol. 2, Princeton University Press, pp. 297–301, ISBN0-691-01001-3
—— (2009), "Book of Mormon Stories that Steph Meyer Tells to Me: LDS Themes in the Twilight Saga and the Host", BYU Studies, 48 (3): 141–47
Other
Riess, Jana (1991), The Saints Go Marching In: Mormonism in American Politics, 1970–1990, [Honors thesis], Wellesley, MA: Department of Religion, Wellesley College
—— (2000), Heathen in Our Fair Land: Anti-Polygamy and Protestant Women's Missions to Utah, 1869–1910, [PhD Thesis], New York: Columbia University
Bigelow, Christopher Kimball (2007), Jana Riess (ed.), The Timechart History of Mormonism from Premortality to the Present, Bassingbourne, Hertfordshire, UK: Worth Press, ISBN978-1-903025-40-6
^"Phil Zuckerman". TheGuardian. April 29, 2023. Retrieved April 29, 2023. Phil Zuckerman is a professor of sociology and secular studies at Pitzer College in Claremont, California. He is the author of Society Without God (2008) and Faith No More (2011).[verification needed]
^Riess, Jana (April 29, 2023). "Authors: Jana Riess"(contributor biographical sketch). FaithandLeadership.com. Durham, NC: Leadership Education at Duke Divinity, Duke University.
^"Harry Potter Raises Eyes of Christians". The Ledger. June 15, 2009 [August 31, 2001]. Retrieved April 29, 2023. 'There's a real religious concern,' observes Jana Riess of Publishers Weekly, who moderated an [Richard] Abanes - [Connie] Neal debate at a July convention of Christian retailers. 'Evangelical Christians believe that witchcraft is real.' / But, she said, witchcraft in the Potter novels 'is not a worldview in the way evangelicals would think of it.' She likens the fuss to parallel complaints when 'The Wizard of Oz' was published a century ago.
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