List Of Writers

OWEN, FIONA

Ein Hoff Le, Llanfaelog, Ty Croes, Ynys Môn, LL63 5TN
Tel. 01407 810742
Email: fiona@rhwng.com
Website: www.rhwng.com

Poet and prose writer. Musician. Fiona Owen was born in Cumberland in 1959, grew up in the Middle East and settled in Wales in 1974; Ynys Môn has been her home since 1978. She teaches literature, humanities and creative writing for the Open University and occasional creative writing sessions for Lifelong Learning, Bangor.

Fiona’s poetry collections are Going Gentle and Imagining the Full Hundred, along with the pamphlet O My Swan. Her work can be found published in journals and magazines such as Scintilla, New Welsh Review, Planet, Fire and Red Poets. Some of her poetry and short stories have been included in such anthologies as Fragments from the Dark: Women Writing Home and Self in Wales, Poetry 1900-2000: One Hundred Poets from Wales, Into the Further Reaches, Acorn Book of Contemporary Haiku, Catwomen from Hell, Teaching a Chicken to Swim and Mama’s Baby (Papa’s Maybe). She is currently writing her next collection The Green Gate and collaborating with the Quaker artist Ann Johnson, poet Meredith Andrea and artist Toni Dewhurst.

Fiona also co-writes and performs music with husband Gorwel Owen, where an attitude of deep listening is cultivated; this parallels her experience within both the Quaker and Buddhist traditions. Together with musician Jim Knight, they form the improvising trio KOO. During the 1980s and early 1990s, she was singer/songwriter with the group Eirin Peryglus and worked with Gorwel as part of the art-music project Plant Bach Ofnus.

She runs ‘Rhwng: the Point Between’ at the Ucheldre Centre, Holyhead, an interdisciplinary society with an on-going programme of events based around the theme of ‘rhwng’/between (www.ucheldre.org).

Reviews:
With respect to Imagining the Full Hundred (Gwasg Pantycelyn, 2003):

“…About the most refreshing thing I’ve come across in Welsh poetry in an age…”
Peter Finch, Planet

“…This is a funny, tender, richly enjoyable first collection of poems, infused with a mischievous wit that shines through its sincerity of engagement …
Closing the book, the reader has the sense of having been a guest made welcome at the hearth of a warm, full and attentive life…”
Elin ap Hywel, a review from www.gwales.com, with the permission of the Welsh Books Council

With respect to Going Gentle (Gomer, 2007):

“…This poet sees the connection between all living things and the world at large … Such imagery emphasises effectively the nature of compassion that is itself born from simple things such as ‘the sight of a wren/on a fennel stalk’...”
Gillian Drake, Roundyhouse

“...This beautiful, thoughtful book … draws inspiration from the ordinary ‘things of our life, lit for a moment’...”
Marianne Jones, Orbis


Selected Publications:
Poetry
O My Swan (Flarestack, 2003)
Imagining the Full Hundred (Gwasg Pantycelyn, 2003)
Going Gentle (Gomer, 2007)

Music & Sonic Art
In Between - Fiona & Gorwel Owen (using the name Pondman) (CD of songs, Yamoosh! 2002)
’All essential services are functioning satisfactorily’ (sonic art/spoken word piece for Zoë Irvine’s Radio R101 project)
The poem ‘Thursday Morning’ (in Going Gentle) is set as a sonic art piece entitled The Dress by composer Rob Godman.
Spring Always Comes – Fiona & Gorwel Owen (CD of songs) (Yamoosh! 2008)
‘Six Minutes’ – Jim Knight, Fiona Owen, Gorwel Owen (KOO) on Pedair Awr Yng Nghymru Fydd/Brave New Wales (Fourier Transform 2008)

Contributed to:
Needs Be (contributor) (Flarestack, 1998)
Mama’s Baby (Papa’s Maybe) (contributor) (Parthian, 1999)
Anglesey Anthology (contributor) (Gwasg Carreg Gwalch, 1999)
Acorn Book of Contemporary Haiku (contributor) (Acorn, 2000)
Catwomen from Hell (contributor) (Honno, 2000)
Teaching a Chicken to Swim (contributor) (Seren, 2000)
Love: An Anthology (The Corgi Series No. 8) (contributor) (Gwasg Carreg Gwalch, 2002)
Into the Further Reaches (contributor) (PS Avalon, 2007)
Poetry 1900-2000: One Hundred Poets from Wales (contributor) (Parthian, Library of Wales, 2007)
Moment of Earth: Poems & Essays in Honour of Jeremy Hooker (contributor) (Celtic Studies Publications, 2007)
Into the Further Reaches (contributor) (PS Avalon, 2007)
Fragments from the Dark: Women Writing Home and Self in Wales (contributor) (Hafan Books, 2008)



Imagining the Full Hundred (Gwasg Pantycelyn, 2003)

In their journey from the sandy imagery of the Arabian Gulf to the green of Wales, these poems explore and affirm precious, precarious life, characterised by its transience and mystery, and place the theme of extended kinship at the heart of the book.

To purchase this title from gwales.com, and for further details, please click on its front cover


 

 O My Swan (Flarestack, 2003)

A jewel, it looked like,
hanging in vacuum black.
It was a miracle of blue.
It was - how precious?

To purchase this title from amazon.co.uk, and for further details, please click on its front cover






Going Gentle (Gomer, 2007)

It is in the ordinary twists and turns of everyday relationships that Fiona Owen discovers the wonders and horrors of existence. It is in the impermanence of today’s moment that she experiences the centuries behind and beyond us. And it is through her own autobiography that she identifies with the lives of others in a celebration of those shared communities that we must, of necessity, build if we are to survive. In its simple but sincere search for what is truly important, Going Gentle is a thoughtful and thought-provoking collection of contemporary, intimate and accessible poems.
 
To purchase this title from gwales.com, and for further details, please click on its front cover

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Open to all offers of workshops and readings.

AGE RANGE: All