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Jennifer Maiden Jennifer Maiden i(A29106 works by) (birth name: Jennifer Margaret Maiden)
Born: Established: 1949 Penrith, Penrith area, Sydney Outer West, Sydney, New South Wales, ;
Gender: Female
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Works By

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1 1 y separately published work icon The China Shelf - New Poems. Jennifer Maiden , Penrith : Quemar Press , 2024 27402160 2024 selected work poetry

'In a new rule-changing level of discourse, in this unique and peerless collection, a China Shelf is at once a location threatened by Australian nuclear submarines, and a space for the necessary ornaments of civilisation, whether they are artifacts, human rights or memory. Here, this is a symbolic space also represented by the concept of a physical china shelf. The multifaceted artifacts on the China Shelf manifest throughout the poems. In one sense, they are described as physical objects on a shelf, able to be placed, touched, appreciated and analysed. On it, models of nuclear submarines and military vehicles are as accessible as its exquisite ornaments, relaxed Art Deco nudes, Chinese lions, Tang horses, figurines of Robert Burns and dancers in red tones created with gold, water-carrier or arched Chinese ships. In another sense, such objects have counterparts in the narratives...' (Publication summary)

1 Gore Vidal Woke up on Julian Assange's 52nd Birthday Jennifer Maiden , 2023 single work poetry
— Appears in: Best of Australian Poems 2023 2023; (p. 74)
1 y separately published work icon The Laps of the Gods : Power, Sexuality, Publishing and Literature: an Exploratory Essay Jennifer Maiden , Penrith : Quemar Press , 2023 26669361 2023 multi chapter work criticism
1 y separately published work icon Golden Bridge : New Poems Jennifer Maiden , Penrith : Quemar Press , 2023 26669165 2023 selected work poetry 'This collection looks at the various functions of the concept and reality of the golden bridge, representing strategic victory, amnesty, mercy, problem-solving and the complexity of memory. In this vibrant new work, a bridge in its essence connects the present with the future, oneself with how one could be: perhaps that is a reason the image of a golden bridge reoccurs in history - a link between the self and time/space surrounding it, a way of commenting on and possibly changing that history itself. In the world, ideas of a 'bridge in gold' seem to occur often. General Kutuzov described his exit strategy for the invading French army as a 'golden bridge'. 'Kutuzov would have hands like that: gnarled and bleached by age and earth, to hold his bridge in a grip both loose, reverential and solid.' In Vietnam, there is a bridge named Cau Vang (golden bridge), supported by vast stone hands, just as a bridge in gold colour connects islands in Bali. Perhaps the bridge often has golden hues to represent auspiciousness, wealth, or a wealth of mercy. These poems reflect a golden bridge and this image ripples and mirrors through the poems' changing fathoms. Here a bridge in gold is that of a Chinese garden with light cast upon it, just as it is Kutuzov's strategy, the curve of a moon in eclipse, the artist's pen outlining a new moral compass for someone, the arched moon being witness as someone plans intricately but delays rescue, Bali's expansive bridge watched by Albanese and Tom Uren as Uren fears for Assange, the crescent of a sleeping cat, the shape of an entity carrying another in its arms, the truck-bombed Kerch Bridge at dawn, the arc of a twisting golden Chinese dragon, or ultimately: 'a golden bridge from Time to Time, with health being a temporal velocity, as Time increases its strength by disconnecting from itself, like a disappearing dragon returning from cloud paradise with cloudy incarnation.' (Publication summary) 
1 Diary Poem : Uses of Iron Ladies i "Violence. Ambition. Bitterness. Lust, not so much. In the recent faction", Jennifer Maiden , 2021 single work poetry
— Appears in: Borderless : A Transnational Anthology of Feminist Poetry 2021; (p. 64-65)
1 y separately published work icon Ox in Metal : New Poems Jennifer Maiden , Penrith : Quemar Press , 2021 23585592 2021 selected work poetry

'Intrinsic to this collection is the image of an ox with metal as flesh or metal as armour, alive, on watch and casting light on perilous situations, signifying the importance of veracity, labour, perseverance, tactics and endurance. Here, in superb experiment, the poet inhabits this essence and examines it, combining personal poetic themes and continuing her tireless exploration of political guises and the nature of passion and power.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

1 Ox in Metal i "I woke up and an ox was at the window, gold and silver", Jennifer Maiden , 2021 single work poetry
— Appears in: Meanjin , Winter vol. 80 no. 2 2021;
1 Clare and Kiribati i "On Clare’s Skype the beach mixed every coral colour: the sheen,", Jennifer Maiden , 2021 single work poetry
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , April no. 430 2021; (p. 39)
1 1 y separately published work icon Biological Necessity Jennifer Maiden , Penrith : Quemar Press , 2021 21005984 2021 selected work poetry

'This new poetry collection reflects Aneurin Bevan's observation that 'Socialism is a biological necessity'. Here, socialism branches out from being a necessity to being the human condition itself, or survival's impulse.

'Here, biological necessity can be the re-appropriation of elegies; keeping the incarnation of the beloved close, never fearing or etherealising it; Elizabeth Macquarie speaking of abuses of power with President Trump's mother Mary Anne MacLeod as they watch fireworks over Sydney Harbour; Maiden and her daughter watching a meteor shower in Covid lockdown; the definiteness of peace; writing having a function similar to a new vaccine; Ghislaine Maxwell in safe paper clothes in prison; Gore Vidal watching over Julian Assange and deciding it was not automatic biology that his country desert him; the similarity between symbols of a pandemic and symbols of empire; Maiden's female protagonist, Clare, mirrored in a Darling Harbour hotel window, thinking of Syria, Kurds, oil and Russia with George her partner; Vidal watching Assange's trial and thinking of the testimony: that it is safer for an 'informant to make a statement about someone who is a ''nobody'', than someone who is genuinely dangerous'; Maiden's ancestor in India naming his new family after his first children and wife who died in a typhoon; maize offered to a deity instead of human sacrifice; the continuing glitter of a river freezing in a dream; the need for someone to be who they were pretending; Nasca Lines in Peru letting Carina - a hero created by the Carina Galaxy - rescue Andean mountain cats; Abbie Hoffman's unfading impact; Donald Trump skyping with Clare and George as Human Rights observers on the 2020 U.S. election night; the phrase 'black water' reinvented as a lyric, not a mercenary firm; Eleanor Roosevelt suspended in no place, unable to visit her earlier idea of her own Hillary Clinton; or La Niña - pacific, lit by lanterns, counteracting forests on fire.Throughout, biological necessity is not only something physical, psychological or spiritual - it is also empathetic and practical, the elements of a discourse in lyricism and humanity between poet and reader.'

 Source: Publisher's blurb.

1 Meteors i "The synapse that retains elegies kicks in for a bit, like", Jennifer Maiden , 2020 single work poetry
— Appears in: Australian Poetry Journal , vol. 10 no. 1 2020; (p. 58-59)
1 y separately published work icon The Cuckold and the Vampires : An Essay on Some Aspects of Conservative Manipulation of Art and Literature, Including Experimental, and the Conservatives' Creation of Conflict Jennifer Maiden , Penrith : Quemar Press , 2020 19690633 2020 single work essay

'The Cuckold and the Vampires is Jennifer Maiden’s extraordinary over-32,700-word subjective essay on aspects of conservative political manipulation of art and literature, including the experimental, and the conservatives' creation of conflict - ranging from Medieval to Ruskin, from Pollock to contemporary Australia. Maiden has observed: ‘One purpose of the essay is to try to warn against microcosmic unwariness in a situation where overwhelming macrocosmic forces are at play…there are all sorts of twists and turns during the course of my essay. My focus is on the wider causes of damage and the nature of power in art… we will continue to try here to respect what Pinter considered mandatory and to smash the mirror of the microcosm, to try to look at the macrocosm behind it.’ The essay is immense in scope and immensely enjoyable, astute and witty.'

(Source: publisher's blurb)

1 Diary Poem : Uses of the Nobel Prize i "In her comment on my poem about Borges in Geneva", Jennifer Maiden , 2020 single work poetry
— Appears in: Cordite Poetry Review , 1 February no. 95 2020;
1 2 y separately published work icon The Espionage Act : New Poems Jennifer Maiden , Penrith : Quemar Press , 2020 18577265 2020 selected work poetry

'The Espionage Act is the new poetry collection by the internationally renowned author, Jennifer Maiden. With her characteristic clear, powerful focus and crisp but sumptuous lyrical style, she analyses espionage in many senses, from the U.S. 1917 Espionage Act to the reflections on the Deep State, to tactical levels in conservative espionage, to its sexuality of fear, to covert promotion and funding of experimental art, to its reactions to primal digital technology, and to the mind itself in its acts of espionage.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

1 1 y separately published work icon Workbook Questions : Writing of Torture, Trauma Experience Margaret Bennett , Jennifer Maiden , Penrith : Quemar Press , 2019 20902345 2019 multi chapter work criticism 'Workbook Questions: Writing of Torture, Trauma Experience' is designed to facilitate survivors of trauma and torture in writing of traumatic experiences, even if complex or untold, by using clinically planned questions to create a space where the survivor's sense of self and identity can remain securely intact. This workbook and its questions were developed by the clinician, academic and researcher Margaret Bennett, who, for a decade, was the Director of STARTTS (NSW Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors), and by the acclaimed author Jennifer Maiden, who was their Writer in Residence, and has conducted over a thousand other literary workshops dealing with traumatic material. This book includes a far-ranging, informal discussion between Bennett and Maiden on the questions' genesis and the theory and clinical experience underpinning them. Maiden has noted the similarity between a professional firefighter extinguishing flames by focusing initially on the fire's outskirts, and the way in which this workbook's questions address traumatic experiences, by asking first about experiences on a trauma's outskirts - past emotions, events and sensations - but ultimately asking about survivors' current situation, feelings and insight into what would help them thrive.' (Publication summary)
1 Umbrage in Vault Seven i "George said to Clare, in bed : 'One of the fake reasons that they spread", Jennifer Maiden , 2019 single work poetry
— Appears in: Australian Poetry Journal , vol. 9 no. 1 2019; (p. 67)
1 Slow Wine i "How often were they actually drunk?", Jennifer Maiden , 2019 single work poetry
— Appears in: Stilts , September no. 5 2019;
1 Pollock, Whitley and the Critic : Seven Layers i "Jackson Pollock woke up in Canberra in 2019 on the second", Jennifer Maiden , 2019 single work poetry
— Appears in: Island , no. 157 2019; (p. 100-102)
1 4 y separately published work icon Brookings : The Noun : New Poems Jennifer Maiden , Penrith : Quemar Press , 2019 15512454 2019 selected work poetry

'The title brookings: the noun has different levels of significance: venturing into a brook's safe appearance, when it will turn to a river, and in extension, a noun to signify the misuse of something politically safe and sure as a distraction to conceal something politically dangerous. he poems observe how political decisions are concealed by ideas of rescue, protection, safety.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

1 The Thousand Yachts : Two i "Kenneth Slessor woke up on Sydney Harbour,", Jennifer Maiden , 2018 single work poetry
— Appears in: Stilts , August no. 2 2018;
1 Adani i "I’ve written about the Appalachian Fall, when mines", Jennifer Maiden , 2018 single work poetry
— Appears in: Hope for Whole : Poets Speak up to Adani 2018; (p. 39)
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