J. S. Harry J. S. Harry i(A661 works by) (a.k.a. Jan S. Harry)
Born: Established: 1939 Adelaide, South Australia, ; Died: Ceased: 20 May 2015
Gender: Female
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BiographyHistory

Jan Harry grew up in Adelaide, and has lived in Sydney since the late 1960s. She started writing books of stories with drawings when she was about seven, and by ten was writing poems to send to childrens' pages in newspapers. She has had a variety of jobs including educational bookselling and as a guest editor, editing ABC Radio National poetry program, 'A First Hearing'. As well she has been a poetry editor for the Ulitarra literary journal.

Her work has won many awards and as well as her poetry, she has also written a political revue sketch and the dialogue for a photographed comic strip. She has been writer-in-residence at the Australian National University. A selection of her poetry has been translated and anthologised in Italian. Her work has been included in anthologies for primary and secondary students, in an environmental studies kit and in other secondary education material.

Most Referenced Works

Affiliation Notes

  • Born in SA but moved elsewhere

Awards for Works

y separately published work icon J. S. Harry : New and Selected Poems Artarmon : Giramondo Publishing , 2021 23750472 2021 selected work poetry

'When J.S. Harry died in 2015 she was acknowledged as one of the great women poets of her generation. This commemorative volume gathers poems from all of her collections, as well as new poems written in the last years of her life.

'As the use of initials in her writing name suggests, J.S. Harry was a very private person. She was also gentle, kind, solicitous and endlessly curious – she would probe, enquire, pursue – everything seemed interesting to her. And she had another quality which was extraordinary, and which, along with her shyness and curiosity, is such a powerful presence in her poetry: this was her attentiveness to the life of the natural world and its creatures. Her poems typically take a quizzical stance, which holds a strange or complex moment up to scrutiny, and then pursues its implications. Her attention is caught by the smallest effects of nature and the delicate responses of animals – and also by the gestures and words of human beings, finely observed, with a sense of the mystery or menace they contain. The effect is often comic or surreal, but it can also be fierce, in its condemnation of oppression. It is enhanced by her mastery of the poetic line – the pause, the variation in length, the sudden shift in emphasis or perspective – and above all by her awareness of language.

'The poems included in New and Selected Poems were chosen by J.S. Harry herself, in collaboration with her long-time friend, the poet Nicolette Stasko.'(Publication summary)

2022 shortlisted APA Book Design Awards Best Designed Non Fiction Book designed by Jenny Grigg.
Braid i "Max remembers the first time they made love", 2006 single work poetry
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , March no. 279 2006; (p. 50)
2006 shortlisted Peter Porter Poetry Prize Prize known as the ABR Poetry Prize in 2006.
Last amended 29 May 2015 07:46:44
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