Jan Owen was born in Adelaide, South Australia. During the 60s she studied part time at the University of Adelaide, eventually achieving an MA. Jan has worked as a writer, creative writing teacher and editor since 1985, she began writing poetry in her thirties and her first collection, Boy with Telescope (1986), won the Anne Elder Award. Other awards include the Mary Gilmore Prize and the Gwen Harwood Poetry Prize. In 2007, Jan won the Poetry and Poetics Centre’s Max Harris Poetry Award for her poem 'Scent, Comb, Spoon'.

'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'.

Jan Owen

MEGAN: How did you get involved in poetry and what was your greatest inspiration behind this?

JAN: My grandfathers were both great story tellers. My father was a journalist and so was his father so they passed that interest and ability on, I guess. My mother also bought me wonderful books. One grandmother was very well read and particularly loved poetry - her glass bookcase was a treasure trove. My other grandmother had travelled the world with her sea-captain husband so she had much to tell me that was rich and strange. So my family, generally, stimulated my imagination. I read a lot of poetry and studied and memorised poems at school and Uni. I studied English there and worked in the Barr Smith Library so there was plenty to read - though the great poets can be very intimidating as well as inspiring to an aspiring writer!

MEGAN: Was there anyone in your life that helped or provided a launching pad for your creative talents…how does this person feature in your life now?

JAN: No-one in particular. A teacher when I was ten was encouraging. Family members, especially my children, have been quite interested and supportive. Though I should say I owe much to so many great poets of the past - far past and recent past - and also to the contemporary poets I've been reading most of my life. These are my guides and teachers.

MEGAN: Is there any avenue of creativity such as painting or sculpting that you have explored to complement or expand on your poetic work?

JAN: Not as a practitioner - no time unfortunately. I do enjoy art and music, and find I often use this interest in my poems as a line or two or as the main topic - especially with works of art. I am currently writing poems based on Hiroshige's Hundred Views of Edo. Language in general intrigues me and some foreign languages as well as English. Scientific ideas, theories and discoveries are often sparks to ideas for a poem.

MEGAN: Is there a single thing that you can pinpoint that sparks your creativity? Describe how this works for you.

JAN: Just keeping my eyes and ears open I guess. Talking to other writers and reading; both poetry and non-fiction. Travel can be a stimulus because of the vivid impact of a new culture. I write many poems about place and other people. A good number of the poems in the last section of my recent book Poems 1980 - 2008 are set in European and SE Asian countries.

MEGAN: Have there been any hurdles on your creative path such as negativity towards your work or limiting environments? How did you overcome these?

JAN: Well - lack of time as a student, worker and mother, earlier anyway. Now, teaching and editing and the complexities of life consume the days. A lot of time can be spent in just getting your work out there - published, publicised, sold. That's why residencies can be so helpful - you can let go of all the other roles and personas that weigh you down.

MEGAN: What is your ideal writing environment both spatially and physically?

JAN: I think just a desk here at home, or in fact anywhere. I have been on quite a few residencies interstate and overseas - Paris, Rome, Kuala Lumpur, Spain. Basically I need paper, pen and a flat surface. Well a view helps sometimes. I prefer quietness with few interruptions; classical music, perhaps, in the background. The feeling of being free of deadlines and obligations helps a great deal.

MEGAN: How do you view the poetic scene in Australia and how has it changed since you became involved as a creative writer?

JAN: There are so many different 'poetry scenes' and I'm fairly isolated from them all. I have good writer friends in every state so that personal group is my scene and I try to make quick visits to Canberra, Hobart, Sydney and Melbourne each year. This is always encouraging, even inspiring, since there is a real exchange of ideas and information. I also keep in regular touch with four poets in England, Italy, France and New York. Critiques, comments, translations and shared projects; invitations all come out of that.

MEGAN: In your dealings with young writers what do you think the consensus is on poetry?

JAN: Well it varies. Probably most students prefer fiction. I think only a very narrow range of poetry is taught in schools and often so warily that kids pick up their teacher's unease. It is treated as a difficult puzzle rather than a gift to be interpreted freely by the individual.

MEGAN: Some say that artistic thought and expression is beneficial to individual and cultural human development, how do you feel about this?

JAN: I agree, it is an intrinsic part of individual and cultural human development. And a very basic human impulse I think. In difficult times more people turn to poetry.

MEGAN: How do you see your work in the future, are you still inspired to write?

JAN: Yes, it is still a pleasure; sometimes a compulsion. Certainly receiving a prize such as the Max Harris Award is a very positive and motivating experience. The audience for poetry is smaller now but groups such as the Poetry and Poetics Centre are a real focus for renewed interest and for actively informing people of poetry as a 'happening' here and now.

MEGAN: Thankyou very much for taking the time to answer these questions on behalf of myself and the Poetry and Poetics Centre.

Jan's poem 'Scent, Comb, Spoon', which won the Max Harris Poetry Award 2007, can be read here.

	Jan Owen's latest collection is published by John Leonard Press.