Janet Wallach is a journalist and the author of eight books. She has written extensively about the Middle East. Her book Desert Queen: The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell, is the biography of the British official most responsible for the creation of modern Iraq. Published by Nan A. Talese/Doubleday (1996), it has been translated into 12 languages. The New York Times Sunday Book Review wrote that, “Ms. Wallach is an expert on the region and her knowledge is on full display here." The San Francisco Chronicle called it “necessary reading for anyone interested in the Middle East.” Her latest book, Seraglio, a novel published by Nan A. Talese/Doubleday (2003), was called “both serious and enchanting” by Publisher’s Weekly. The New York Times Sunday Book Review said it was “a Horatio Alger story … and a micro-history of the Ottoman Empire.” In her research for the book, Janet traveled to Turkey where she worked with experts in history and art, and with the Topkapi Palace.
For her work on Desert Queen, Janet traveled to Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Israel and Iraq. In Baghdad, she spent several weeks doing research in the British archives and at the Antiquities Museum, and interviewed numerous diplomats, archaeologists, former officials and journalists. In addition to her time in the Middle East, she did research at the Universities of Oxford, Newcastle and Durban, as well as at the British Library and the Public Records Office in Kew.
Over the course of the past 12 years, much of it spent living and working in the Middle East, Janet has co-authored with her late husband John Wallach, Arafat: In the Eyes of the Beholder (Carol Publishing, 1991, updated 1997), a biography of Yasser Arafat; The New Palestinians (Prima, 1992), a look at leading figures in the West Bank and Gaza; and Still Small Voices (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1988), the personal stories of 12 Israelis and Palestinians during the first Intifada. Her work on the Arafat biography took her to Tunis, where she spent three months interviewing Arafat and other PLO officials; Egypt, where she met with Egyptian officials and Arafat family members; Syria, where she interviewed radical anti-Arafat Palestinian groups; Jordan, where, in addition to meetings with Arafat confidantes and family members, she had an extensive interview with His Majesty, the late King Hussein; and Israel, where she interviewed leading officials and met with the Defense Minister, the late Yitzhak Rabin.
As a frequent contributor to The Washington Post Magazine from 1982-1987, and as a contributor to Smithsonian Magazine and other periodicals, Janet has written profiles of Iraqi Ambassador Nizar Hamdoon, Her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan, Reza Pahlavi (heir to the throne of Iran), PLO envoy Hassan Abdul Rahman, Saudi entrepreneur Adnan Khashoggi, First Lady of Egypt Jihan Sadat, and the British official Gertrude Bell.
Janet is a Woodrow Wilson Institute Visiting Fellow and has taught at Earlham College, Longwood College, Ohio Wesleyan University, Stetson College, St. Olaf College, Bradford College, Susquehana College, and West Virginia Wesleyan College. She has been a guest speaker at Arizona State University (T.E. Lawrence Symposium), the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs, Chautauqua Institution, The Cosmopolitan Club, The Explorers’ Club, Harmonie Club, Meridien House, the National Arts Club, Quinnipiac College, St. Olaf College (Nobel Peace Prize Symposium), Wellesley College, Women’s Democratic Club, Women’s Republican Club, and Yale University. She has appeared as a guest commentator on various television programs for CNN, A&E Biography, National Geographic, and network talk shows, as well as on C-Span's Booknotes. She co-hosted a nationally syndicated program, Private Lives; Public People, on the Lifetime cable network.
Janet was born in New York City and received a B.A. degree from New York University. She was married to the late John Wallach, founder and president of Seeds of Peace, and has two sons, David Allyn and Michael Wallach.