Catherine Owen

Photo of CatherineCatherine Owen is a Canadian poet, writer, and performer.

Early life Catherine Owen, the eldest of five siblings was born and raised in Vancouver. At 11, her short story won a Catholic school writing contest. As a teenager, Owen wrote and performed public readings of her poetry. Owen currently resides in Edmonton, Alberta.

Career

In 1998, her first work was published by Exile Editions. Since then, she has published a number of literary, non-fiction and poetry works. She regularly reviews poetry for Canadian publications.

Owen runs the performance series 94th Street Trobairitz, and hosts a podcast named Ms Lyric's Poetry Outlaws. She has a web series named The Reading Queen, about literature aimed at children.

Publications

The Other 23 and a Half Hours or Everything You Wanted To Know That Your MFA Didn't Teach You (Wolsak & Wynn, 2015) The Day of the Dead, a collection of short stories (Caitlin Press, 2016) Locations of Grief: an emotional geography, an anthology of Canadian grief memoirs (Wolsak & Wynn, 2020) The Life and Work of Egon Schiele (Exile Editions, 1998)

Awards Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry in 2010.

Nominations Gerald Lampert Award (1999) BC Book Prize (2002) George Ryga Award Re-lit Prize (2006, 2018) Pat Lowther Award (2018)