Jan Owen

Jan Owen (born 18 August 1940) is a contemporary Australian poet.

Life

Jan Owen was born Janette Muriel Sincock in Adelaide, South Australia, attending school there and in Melbourne, leaving early to work as a laboratory assistant. [cite web
title = Guide to the Papers of Jan Owen
publisher = Australian Defence Force Academy
url = https://www.student.adfa.edu.au/library/speccoll/finding_aids/owen_jan.html
accessdate = 2007-03-20 ] During the 60s she studied part time at the University of Adelaide, eventually achieving an MA, and has travelled in Europe and Asia.

Owen has worked as a writer, creative writing teacher and editor since 1985. [http://www.abc.net.au/rn/spiritofthings/stories/2002/750063.htm "Secular Hymns: Three Secular Poets on Religion" on "The Spirit of Things", ABC-TV, 2002-12-22] ]

Jan Owen has three children and currently lives in Adelaide.

Poetry

Owen began writing poetry in her thirties and her first collection, "Boy with Telescope" (1986), won the Anne Elder Award. She has had several writer's residencies in Australia and also Italy and Malaysia.

Her awards include the Mary Gilmore Prize and the Gwen Harwood Poetry Prize. In 2007, she won the Max Harris Poetry Award for her poem "Scent, Comb, Spoon". [http://poetryandpoeticscentre.com/index.php/Max_Harris_Poetry_Award_2007_results Max Harris Poetry Award 2007] ] . The judges wrote: "a well crafted poem full of intriguing resonances on the theme of memory and association. The poem spins a chain of possibilities and disharmonies but always returns to the idea of the value of what we have experienced. This is a poem of turns and surprises and we enjoyed it more with each reading".

In a radio interview in 2002, Owen said that "I sometimes think that I should be writing political satire or trying to tackle the real problems of this world, and then I remember a Taoist saying which is 'You think you can improve the world? I do not think it can be done'." In the same interview, she also said that "poetry is against dogma, against a final certainty, it's very unsettling. ... I think we need the challenge and the shake-up, and the freshness of a new way of looking at things which poetry can give us."

Bibliography

Poetry
* "Boy with Telescope". (Angus & Robertson, 1986) ISBN 0207152969
* "Fingerprints on light". (Angus & Robertson, 1990) ISBN 0207165823
* "Blackberry season". (Molonglo, 1993) ISBN 0646121472
* "Night rainbows". (William Heinemann, 1994) ISBN 085561515X
* "Timedancing". (Five Islands, 2002) ISBN 0864187750

Edited
* "Time's Collision with the Tongue". With Peter Boyle (Coal River, 2000) ISBN 9780864186980
* "Living Room: Poems from the Centre". (Ptilotus, 2003) ISBN 0-646-43101-3 [http://www.thylazine.org/thyla12/lrbook.html Review]

References

External links

* [http://www.friendlystreetpoets.org.au/owen.htm 3 poems] at Friendly Street Poets
* [http://www.mascarapoetry.com/issue1/janowen.htm 2 poems]
* [http://www.thylazine.org/archives/thyla3/owen.html Interview & poems]
* [http://walleahpress.com.au/int-owen.html Interview]
* [http://www.maastrichtpoetry.com/index.php-x=5&y=0&z=1&i=0&l=0&li=5.htm Rhyme or Riesling] about Maastricht International Poetry Nights

Persondata
NAME=Owen, Jan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Australian poet
DATE OF BIRTH=1940
PLACE OF BIRTH=Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
DATE OF DEATH=
PLACE OF DEATH=