Born Janine Burford on November 2, 1942, in Los Angeles, California, she graduated from Stanford University cum laude in 1963.
She married Michael Canan, a law student, and moved to Berkeley where she did graduate study and taught at the University of California.
In her thirties, she attended New York University School of Medicine and completed a psychiatric residency at Herrick and Mount Zion Hospitals in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Since 1979, Canan has been active in private psychiatric practice, consulting for various clinics and organizations, and volunteered for Amma's Embracing the World charities.
Canan's translations of the German Jewish poet Else Lasker-Schüler, Star in My Forehead, was a Booksense and City Lights Books "pick".