Jean Kent

Jean Kent (born 1951) is an Australian poet.

Education Jean Kent was educated at the Glennie Memorial School in Toowoomba and graduated from University of Queensland with Bachelor of Arts majoring in psychology. She has worked in vocational guidance, educational guidance of disabled children, counselling of students and staff in TAFE colleges and, most recently, teaching creative writing. Jean now lives on Lake Macquarie,

Literary career

Jean Kent has published stories in many of Australia's quality literary magazines such as Overland, Westerly, Outrider, Imago, Australian Short Stories and Meanjin as well as in the American-based Antiopodes. She has published ten poetry collections. Travelling with the Wrong Phrasebooks included poems about her travels in Paris and Lithuania. The Hour of Silvered Mullet contemplates her rural past and lakeside present and was published by Pitt Street Poetry in 2015.

Awards

Newcastle Poetry Prize, Local Award (2023) Newcastle Poetry Prize, Local Award (2015) Dorothy Porter Prize (2009) Newcastle Poetry Prize, Local Award (2008) Somerset Poetry Prize (2003) Wesley Michel Wright Prize for Poetry (1998) Newcastle Poetry Prize, 2nd prize (1997) the Association for the Study of Australian Literature's Mary Gilmore Award (1991) FAW Anne Elder Poetry Award (1990) Henry Kendall Poetry Competition (1988 and 1989)

Works Verandahs (Hale and Iremonger, 1990; republished by Picaro Press, 2009), Practising Breathing (Hale and Iremonger, 1991), The Satin Bowerbird (Hale and Iremonger, 1998) The Spaghetti Maker, a chapbook of selected poems, was published by Picaro Press in 2002 Travelling with the Wrong Phrasebooks (Pitt Street Poetry, 2012) The Language of Light (Association of Stories in Macao and Cerberus Press, 2013) The Hour of Silvered Mullet (Pitt Street Poetry, 2015) Paris in my pocket (Pitt Street Poetry, 2016) The Shadow Box (Pitt Street Poetry, 2023) Paris Light a personal Plan de Paris (Pitt Street Poetry, 2024)