Jeni Couzyn (born 1942) is a feminist poet and

anthologist In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs or excerpts by different authors. In genre fiction, the term ''anthology'' typically catego ...

of South African extraction who lives and works in Canada and the United Kingdom. Her best known collection is titled '' Life by Drowning: Selected Poems'' (1985), which includes an earlier sequence ''A Time to Be Born'' (1981) that chronicles her pregnancy and the birth of her daughter.

Biography

Couzyn was born in South Africa and educated at the

University of Natal The University of Natal was a university in the former South African province Natal which later became KwaZulu-Natal. The University of Natal no longer exists as a distinct legal entity, as it was incorporated into the University of KwaZulu-N ...

. She emigrated to Britain in 1966 and established herself as a freelance writer. She became a Canadian citizen in 1975 and the following year was appointed writer-in-residence at the

University of Victoria The University of Victoria (UVic or Victoria) is a public research university located in the municipalities of Oak Bay and Saanich, British Columbia, Canada. The university traces its roots to Victoria College, the first post-secondary insti ...

, British Columbia. Since then she has divided her time between England, Canada, and South Africa.

Work

Poetry

Couzyn's first collection was titled ''Flying'' (1970). Later collections include ''Christmas in Africa'' (1975), ''A Time to be Born'' (1981), ''Life by Drowning: Selected poems'' (1985), and ''That's It'' (1993).Stringer p. 145 ''A Time to be Born'' deals with childbirth from "conception to birth and early infancy". ''The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century Literature in English'' remarks that Couzyn's poetry repeatedly engages the social, political and imaginative implications of womanhood. Her poetry has been described as minimalist. The ''Oxford Companion'' observes that her conception of poetry as pre-eminently oral gives much of her work clarity and immediacy.Papke p. 183

Anthologies

Couzyn edited the influential '' The Bloodaxe Book of Contemporary Women Poets'' (1985), set as an A-level text in British schools at the time. A later anthology, ''Singing Down the Bones'' (1989), was aimed at a teenage audience.

Other

Couzyn has authored two books for children. With Julie Malgas, she produced a study of Koos Malgas, the sculptor who helped create ''

The Owl House ''The Owl House'' is an American animated fantasy television series created by Dana Terrace that premiered on Disney Channel on January 10, 2020. The series stars the voices of Sarah-Nicole Robles, Wendie Malick, Alex Hirsch, Tati Gabrielle, I ...

'', a

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make thes ...

Nieu-Bethesda Nieu-Bethesda (Afrikaans for ''New Bethesda'') is a village in the Eastern Cape at the foot of the Sneeuberge, approximately north of Graaff Reinet. It was founded in 1875 as a church town, like many other Karoo villages, and attained municipa ...

, Eastern Cape,

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

, noted for its visionary conception.

References

External links

Finding aid to Jeni Couzyn papers at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Couzyn, Jeni 1942 births Living people 20th-century Canadian poets Canadian women poets Canadian feminist writers Women anthologists 20th-century Canadian women writers South African women poets South African feminists