Jennifer Maiden

Jennifer Maiden (born 7 April 1949) is an Australian poet. She was born in Penrith, New South Wales, and has had 24 books published: 21 poetry collections and 3 novels. She began writing professionally in the late 1960s and has been active in Sydney's literary scene since then. She took a BA at Macquarie University in the early 1970s.^[1] She has one daughter, Katharine Margot Toohey. Aside from writing, Jennifer Maiden runs writers workshops with a variety of literary, community and educational organizations and has co-written (with Margaret Cunningham Bennett, who was then the director of the New South Wales Torture and Trauma Rehabilitation Service) a manual of questions to facilitate writing by Torture and Trauma Victims.

Works and awards

Among Jennifer Maiden's many awards are three Kenneth Slessor Prizes for Poetry, two C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry,the overall Victorian Prize for Literature, the Harri Jones Memorial Prize, the H.M. Butterly-F.Earle Hooper Award(University of Sydney), the Grenfell Henry Lawson Festival Prize, the FAW Christopher Brennan Award for lifetime achievement in poetry, two The Melbourne Age Poetry Book of the Year awards, the overall Melbourne Age Book of the Year and the ALS Gold Medal. She has had residencies at the Australian National University, the University of Western Sydney, Springwood High School and the New South Wales Torture and Trauma Rehabilitation Service. She has been awarded several Fellowships by the Australia Council.

Her second novel Play With Knives has been translated into German as Ein Messer im Haus (dtv, 1994).

Her fourth latest Australian collection, Pirate Rain, won The Melbourne Age Poetry Book of the Year in 2010 and the N.S.W. Premier's Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry in 2011. She is the only writer to have won the Kenneth Slessor Prize three times.

In October 2011, the Australian magazine of politics, society and culture, The Monthly, listed her poetry collection, Friendly Fire (2005), as the poetry book in their selection of 20 Australian Masterpieces since 2000, when they asked 20 Australian art critics to identify "the most significant work of art in their field since 2000".^[2]

Her first UK collection, Intimate Geography, which is a selection from four of her Australian collections (Acoustic Shadow, Mines, Friendly Fire and Pirate Rain), was published by Bloodaxe Books in March, 2012.

Jennifer Maiden.

Her fourth latest Australian collection, Liquid Nitrogen, was published by Giramondo in November, 2012, won the C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry and the overall Victorian Prize for Literature, and was shortlisted for the Griffin International Poetry Prize,^[3] the Australian Prime Minister's Awards, and the Judith Wright Calanthe Award. A chapbook of some of her new poems, The Violence of Waiting, was published by Vagabond Press in November, 2013. Her third latest collection, Drones and Phantoms, was published by Giramondo in 2014, and won the 2015 ALS Gold Medal. Her second latest collection, The Fox Petition, was published by Giramondo in November, 2015.

A new, revised edition of her novel Play With Knives was published online as a free download by Quemar Press in 2016, followed by its previously unpublished sequel, Play With Knives: Two: Complicity.^[4]

Maiden's latest collection, The Metronome, deals partly with the 2016 U.S. elections and includes their result in its epilogue. Because of topical relevance, Quemar Press uploaded its electronic edition on 9th November, 2016.^[5] Giramondo will publish a print edition of The Metronome in February 2017.^[6]

Bibliography

Poetry

Collections

• Maiden, Jennifer (1974). Tactics. St Lucia, Qld.: UQP. 
• The Problem of Evil. (Prism, 1975)
• The Occupying Forces. (Gargoyle, 1975)
• Mortal Details. (Rigmarole, 1977)
• Birthstones. (Angus & Robertson, 1978)
• The Border Loss. (Angus & Robertson, 1979)
• For The Left Hand. (South Head, 1981)
• The Trust. (Black Lightning, 1988)
• Bastille Day. (NLA, 1990)
• Selected Poems of Jennifer Maiden. (Penguin, 1990)
• The Winter Baby. (Angus & Robertson, 1990)
• Acoustic Shadow. (Penguin, 1993)
• Mines. (Paper Bark, 1999) ISBN 90-5704-046-8
• Friendly Fire (Giramondo, 2005) ISBN 1-920882-12-X
• Pirate Rain (Giramondo, 2009) ISBN 978-1-920882-59-4
• Intimate Geography: Selected Poems 1991-2010 (Bloodaxe Books, 2012) ISBN 978-1-85224-926-7
• Liquid Nitrogen (Giramondo, 2012) ISBN 978-1-920882-99-0
• The Violence of Waiting (Vagabond Press, 2013)
• Drones and Phantoms (Giramondo, 2014) ISBN 978-1-922146-72-4
• The Fox Petition (Giramondo, 2015) ISBN 978-1-922146-94-6
• The Metronome (Quemar Press, 2016) ISBN 978-0-9954181-0-3

Novels

• The Terms. (Hale & Iremonger, 1982)
• Play With Knives. (Allen & Unwin, 1990. New Edition: Quemar Press, 2016)
• Play With Knives: Two: Complicity. (Quemar Press, 2016)

See also

References

External links

• Biography, 2 poems, audio recording and video at the Red Room Company
• 10 poems at Poetry International Web
• 3 poems at Jacket Magazine
• Friendly Fire Title Page at Giramondo Publishing
• Jennifer Maiden Title Page at Bloodaxe Books
• Review of Friendly Fire at Sydney Morning Herald
• Review of Pirate Rain at Radio National
• Review of Liquid Nitrogen at The Australian
• Review of Intimate Geography at Poetry Book Society Poetry Portal
• Liquid Nitrogen Title Page at Giramondo Publishing
• Review of Liquid Nitrogen, Sydney Review of Books