October 22, 2001
Conversation With Johanna Reiss

Johanna Reiss was born in Holland and hidden with her sister for nearly three years (from age ten to thirteen) in a small room of a Christian family's farmhouse. During part of this time the Germans used the lower floors as their headquarters. Ms. Reiss's book, The Upstairs Room, which describes this experience, received an enthusiastic review by Elie Wiesel and has won many awards including the Newbery Honor and the Jewish Council Children's book award.
After the war, Ms. Reiss completed her education and taught elementary school for several years. In 1955 she came to the USA for what was supposed to be a one-year stay, but she married an American and has raised her two daughters in New York City.
In 1976, Johanna Reiss wrote The Journey Back in which she describes what it was like to be free again. Her third book, Die Fatale Nacht (That Fateful Night) about a flood that took place in Holland in the 1950's came out in that country in 1988. Ms. Reiss focuses on how people behave in times of disaster and how those who survive pick up the pieces of their lives. Presently she is completing another autobiographical book.
For ten years Ms. Reiss was a Board Member of P.E.N. (Poets, Essayists, and Novelists) and chaired their Prison Writing Program, during which time she visited jails and worked with inmates. She was a writing tutor for the Fortune Society and has given writing workshopos to children and adults. She conducted summer seminars on autobiographical writing for the International Women's Writing Guild at Skidmore College. She travels throughout the United States, visiting schools and organizations to discuss the Holocaust and to give readings from her books. In the past few years she also visited schools in Germany as well as the Taipei American School in Taiwan.

Ms. Reiss has asked that all correspondence be sent through her publisher:

Harper Collins
1350 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10019-4703

She will answer as soon as she can.