Janet Fitch

{{Short description|American novelist (born 1955)}}

{{BLP sources|date=March 2008}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2013}}

{{Infobox writer

| name = Janet Fitch

| image = Janet Fitch at LA Book Fest 2025 (cropped).jpg

| imagesize =

| caption = Fitch in 2025

| pseudonym =

| birth_name = Janet Elizabeth FitchCalifornia Births, 1905 – 1995, [http://www.familytreelegends.com/records/39461?c=search&first=Janet&last=Fitch Janet Elizabeth Fitch]

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1955|11|9}}

| birth_place = Los Angeles, California, U.S.

| death_date =

| death_place =

| occupation = Writer

| alma_mater = Reed College

| period =

| genre = Literary Fiction

| subject =

| movement =

| notableworks = White Oleander

| website =

}}

Janet Fitch (born November 9, 1955) is an American author. She wrote the novel White Oleander, which became a film in 2002. She is a graduate of Reed College.{{Cite web|url=https://www.reed.edu/reed-magazine/articles/2018/janet-fitch-book.html|title=Revolutionary Spirit|last=Weber ’78|first=John|website=Reed Magazine|language=en-us|access-date=2019-06-20}}

Fitch was born in Los Angeles, a third-generation native, and grew up in a family of voracious readers. As an undergraduate at Reed College, Fitch had decided to become a historian, attracted to its powerful narratives, the scope of events, the colossal personalities, and the potency and breadth of its themes. But when she won a student exchange to Keele University in England, where her passion for Russian history led her, she awoke in the middle of the night on her twenty-first birthday with the revelation she wanted to write fiction.[https://www.janetfitchwrites.com/about "About Janet"]. Official website. janetfitchwrites.com

Fitch was a faculty member in the Master of Professional Writing Program at the University of Southern California, where she taught fiction.

Two of her favorite authors are Fyodor Dostoevsky{{cite web | last=Montefiore | first=Simon Sebag | title=One Woman's Liberation, Set Against the Russian Revolution | work=New York Times | date=2017-10-20 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/20/books/review/revolution-of-marina-m-janet-fitch.html | accessdate = 2019-04-17}} and Edgar Allan Poe.

Her third novel, Paint It Black, named after the Rolling Stones song of the same name, was published in September 2006. Amber Tamblyn directed a 2016 feature film based on the book.{{cite web | last=Brooks | first=Brian | title=Bryan Cranston In 'Wakefield'; Amber Tamblyn Opens Directorial Debut 'Paint It Black': Specialty Box Office Preview | publisher=Deadline | date=2017-05-19 | url=https://deadline.com/2017/05/bryan-cranston-wakefield-amber-tamblyn-paint-it-black-specialty-box-office-preview-1202097928/ | accessdate = 2019-04-17}}