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 moved to 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 the Department of Lifelong Learning, Bangor.

Fiona’s poetry collections are Going Gentle (Gomer, 2007) and Imagining the Full Hundred (Gwasg Pantycelyn, 2003), along with the pamphlet O My Swan (Flarestack, 2003). Her work can be found published in journals and magazines such as Scintilla, New Welsh Review, Planet, Fire and Red Poets, including the articles ’Touching the Earth for Wisdom’ in Planet (December 2005) and ‘This Even Frailer Flesh’ in Scintilla 8 (2004), and the piece of literary criticism ‘Language of Light: the Poetry of John Powell Ward’ in Welsh Writing in English Vol.7 (2001). Some of her poetry and short stories have been included in such anthologies as Into the Further Reaches (PS Avalon, 2007), Acorn Book of Contemporary Haiku (Acorn, 2000), Catwomen from Hell (Honno, 2000), Teaching a Chicken to Swim (Seren, 2000) and Mama’s Baby (Papa’s Maybe) (Parthian, 1999).

Fiona also co–writes and performs music with Gorwel Owen, where an attitude of deep listening is cultivated; this parallels her experience within both the Quaker and Buddhist traditions. 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.

Fiona is also currently working for a PhD (part-time) in Creative and Critical Writing at the Department of English, Bangor; her research focuses on ecopoetics. She also 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.rhwng.com).

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


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

Music & Sonic Art
In Between – 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.

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)



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 transcience 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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