| Jana Riess | |
| Birth Name: | Jana Kathryn Riess |
| Birth Date: | 13 December 1969 |
| Birth Place: | United States |
| Occupation: | Writer |
| Language: | English |
| Nationality: | American |
| Education: | PhD |
| Alma Mater: | Columbia University |
| Period: | 1990s-present |
| Genre: | Religion |
| Spouse: | Phil Smith |
| Children: | Jerusha (born c. 1999) |
Jana Kathryn Riess (born December 13, 1969) is an American professor, writer, and editor. Riess' writings have focused on American religions, especially the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) of which she is a member, and other new religious movements.
As she describes in her own autobiographical writings, Riess was born in the Midwestern United States, and has an older brother, John.[1] She and her mother Phyllis[2] were, per her description, abandoned by her father without warning in 1984,[1] by which time her brother was on his own. Riess has described her father, who died at age 71 in Mobile, Alabama, in October 2010,[1] as "an angry atheist" and her mother as "considerably more charitable but no more interested in organized religion."[1]
Riess has a Bachelor's degree from Wellesley College, a Master's degree in theology from the Princeton Theological Seminary, and a PhD in American Religious studies from Columbia University.
Riess is an expert on religion in literature. As of this date, Riess is a Religion and American Studies professor at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.
From 1999 to 2008 she was the religion book editor for Publishers Weekly.[3]
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.
Riess' 2019 The Next Mormons: How Millennials Are Changing the LDS Church, received critical praise;[4] [5] Phil Zuckerman, a professor of sociology at Pitzer College in Claremont, California,[6] describes the work as "[s]ociologically sound, extremely well-researched and well-written".[5]
Riess and her colleague Benjamin Knoll published a landmark analysis which questioned the accuracy of reports that LDS membership was growing.[5] [4]
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.[7] 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![8]
In July 2001 Riess moderated a debate between Richard Abanes and Connie Neal at a convention of Christian retailers over the "real religious concern" over the Harry Potter books with regard to their presentation of witchcraft and aspects of the occult.[9] Among the books by Riess are the 2004 What Would Buffy Do?, and an abridgment of the Book of Mormon with commentary.
As of 2017, she was conducting "The Next Mormons" survey project to look at how different generations of Mormons have interacted with the Church.[10]
Riess is a convert to the LDS Church. She is married to Phil Smith, and they reside in Cincinnati.[11]