Jan Owen was born in Adelaide in 1940, and lives nearby at Aldinga Beach. She has worked as a librarian, editor and teacher and has been a writer in residence in Venice, Rome, Paris and Malaysia. Awards for her poetry include the Mary Gilmore Prize, the Anne Elder Award, the Wesley Michel Wright Prize, the Gwen Harwood Prize and the Max Harris Award. Her fifth collection Timedancing (2002) was shortlisted for the Judith Wright Calanthe Award and the John Bray National Poetry Prize. She was awarded the 2016 Philip Hodgins Memorial Medal as a consistently outstanding Australian writer.
Photo: Bernard Bardinet