Jeni Couzyn

JC , poet of the twentieth century and later, calls herself a blend of several nationalities (South African, British, and Canadian) and of many identities. She is a feminist anthologist as well as a poet, author of spare but effective literary criticism in the form of introductions and headnotes.

Milestones

26 July 1942
JC was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, the youngest in a family of three daughters.
“Contemporary Authors”. Gale Databases: Literature Resource Centre-LRC.
Hobsbaum, Philip. “Jeni Couzyn”. Contemporary Poets, edited by Thomas Riggs, 6th ed, St. James Press, 1996, pp. 196 - 8.
196
Lampert, Arlene, Rosemary Sullivan, and Jeni Couzyn. “Preface”. The Selected Poetry of Jeni Couzyn, edited by Arlene Lampert, Rosemary Sullivan, Arlene Lampert, and Rosemary Sullivan, Exile Editions, 2000, p. xi - xiii.
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January 1983
Jeni Couzyn 's best-known collection of poetry, Life by Drowning: Selected Poems, was published by Toronto's House of Anansi Press . It includes the poetic sequence A Time to Be Born, written about her pregnancy and the birth of her daughter.
“Bowker’s Global Books in Print”. globalbooksinprint.com.
“Contemporary Authors”. Gale Databases: Literature Resource Centre-LRC.
March 1985
JC issued through Bloodaxe a revised and expanded edition of Life by Drowning: Selected Poems (which had been published in Toronto in 1983).
University of Alberta Libraries On-line Catalogue.

Biography

Birth and Background

26 July 1942
JC was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, the youngest in a family of three daughters.
“Contemporary Authors”. Gale Databases: Literature Resource Centre-LRC.
Hobsbaum, Philip. “Jeni Couzyn”. Contemporary Poets, edited by Thomas Riggs, 6th ed, St. James Press, 1996, pp. 196 - 8.
196
Lampert, Arlene, Rosemary Sullivan, and Jeni Couzyn. “Preface”. The Selected Poetry of Jeni Couzyn, edited by Arlene Lampert, Rosemary Sullivan, Arlene Lampert, and Rosemary Sullivan, Exile Editions, 2000, p. xi - xiii.
xi