Jan Kemp (writer)

Last updated

Jan Kemp

MNZM
Jan*Kemp*Frankfurt*2012*Lisa*Gardiner.jpg
At the 2012 Frankfurt Book Fair
BornJanet Mary Kemp
(1949-03-12) 12 March 1949 (age 75)
Hamilton, New Zealand
Occupation
  • Poet
  • short story writer
  • memoirist
Education University of Auckland (MA)
SpouseDieter Riemenschneider

Janet Mary Riemenschneider-Kemp MNZM (born 12 March 1949) is a New Zealand poet, short story writer, memoirist and public performer of her work. Her writing career began in the late 1960s and early 1970s and has continued into the 21st century, with a number of published collections; her poems often focus on personal and intimate subjects. Her poems also reflect her international travel experiences, including periods spent teaching English as a foreign language.

Contents

In addition to her poems, Kemp has also published 21 short stories - Spirals of Breath, (Tranzlit 2019), two novellas - The Cook, the 'Consul' & the Crazyman and Ginkgo (Tranzlit, 2019) and two memoirs - Raiment (Massey Press, 2022) and To see a World (Tranzlit, 2023). She has recently put together her 10th collection of poems - Dancing Heart (forthcoming). As of 2008 she lives in Kronberg im Taunus, Germany.

Early life and education

Kemp was born in Hamilton on 12 March 1949. [1] : 10  The family moved to Morrinsville before she was one, [1] : 11  and subsequently to Auckland when she was 13, where she attended Pakuranga College. [1] : 90  It was at Pakuranga College that Kemp was encouraged in her poetry writing by an English teacher, who she describes as her first mentor. [2]

Kemp graduated from the University of Auckland with a Master of Arts in English in 1974. She gained a Diploma in Teaching from Auckland Teachers' College in 1972, and an RSA Certificate, British Council, Hong Kong (Teacher of English as a Foreign Language) in 1984. [3] [4] In 1974, while studying at the University of Auckland, she and two other members of the English department collected and published the first cassette series of recorded New Zealand poetry. [5] [6] She spent a year teaching primary school before beginning her master's degree. [2]

Career

Poetry

Kemp began contributing to the poetry magazine The Word is Freed (usually abbreviated to Freed) in the late 1960s. [1] : 196  [7] [8] The magazine had been established in 1968 by a group of poets at the University of Auckland; Kemp was one of the few women who performed poetry with the group, [7] and one of only two women to have poems accepted by the magazine. [9] She was also the only woman poet whose work was included in the 1973 anthology The Young New Zealand Poets edited by Arthur Baysting. [7] [8] [10]

Kemp's first volume of poetry, Against the Softness of Women, was published in 1976 by Caveman Press. Kemp says in her memoir Raiment (2022) that she had written all the poems and submitted them to the publisher by 1972, but that he "stalled on releasing it for some years, as he wasn't certain a book solely by a woman poet would sell". [1] : 211  Academic Janet Wilson, writing in The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature, notes that despite Kemp's prominence as a woman poet at this time, "she has never been an overtly feminist writer"; many of her poems focus on the self and the "illuminations that the challenge to discover intimacy can bring". [10] In 1977, her poems were included in Private Gardens, an anthology of New Zealand women poets edited by Riemke Ensing; Peter Simpson described Kemp's poetry as standing out for its "erotic directness and delicacy". [11]

In winter 1979, Kemp toured New Zealand as part of the 'Gang of Four' poetry tour, with Sam Hunt, Alistair Campbell and Hone Tuwhare. [7] [12] Once again the only woman, Kemp was described in the programme published by the New Zealand Students' Art Council as "the youngest — and prettiest? — of the four poets on tour". [13] During the tour they gave public readings, visited schools and universities, and visited Parliament. [14] [15]

Kemp's poems are often influenced by her world travels. Between 1974 and 1978 Kemp travelled overseas in the Pacific Islands, Australia, Canada and Malaysia. Her second collection, Diamonds and Gravel (1979) contained a number of the poems that she wrote on these travels. [2] In the 1980s, she worked as a teacher of English as a foreign language at the University of Papua, Papua New Guinea (1980–1982), the University of Hong Kong (1982–1985), and the National University of Singapore (1985). [4] In 1980, she was the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council Poetry Representative at the South Pacific Festival of Arts in Papua New Guinea. [4] The Other Hemisphere (1992) was described in the New Zealand Review of Books as "very well-travelled writing, crossing continents to base itself in foreign universities, making affectionate allusions to other writers". [16]

In 2001 her poem "Elephant Riding" was selected for inclusion in Best New Zealand Poems . [17] Her collection Only One Angel was also published in this year, and included illustrations of angels by Claudia Pond Eyley. Emma Neale, reviewing the collection, noted that "love is a guiding principle" of Kemp's poems, "an absolute that is as tangible as a rock or a tree", and said that Kemp's work is "very often expressive, lyrical, written from a fount of feeling". [18]

Her 2006 collection Dante's Heaven was translated into German by her husband Dieter Riemenschneider under the title Dantes Himmel, and released as part of the 2012 Frankfurt Book Fair. It was also translated into Italian by Aldo Magnanino as Il Cielo di Dante. [7] A review in The New Zealand Review of Books called it a "strong collection — dense, varied, occasionally arch, more often perceptive and affecting". [19]

In 2012 her collection Voicetracks was published as a joint German and New Zealand publication. It is based around Kemp's life as a New Zealand expatriate in Germany, features Kemp's own photos as illustrations, and references the life and ideas of philosopher Walter Benjamin. [20] [21] Cliff Fell in Landfall says Kemp "seems to be inviting us to drill down into deeper mysteries, into events of the past that the places she depicts were once setting to, events which — as Benjamin suggests — can never, and perhaps should never, be fully understood". He concludes that the collection is a "collection of accomplished lyrics, on the whole, but it's an unsettling read, as though the poems haven’t quite settled into their new landscape". [20]

In Poetry New Zealand, issue 48, Kemp discusses her poetic practice: [22]

I still hear a line or lines or just a phrase in my head and have taught myself to listen, to let the words keep on coming; I chant them aloud, to remember them, say if out walking; when I can get to paper and pencil, I write them down. Later, I type them up into a text and spend time finessing them. I do the thinking work then, once I've seen what I've said or am trying to say. A poem can take years or a moment to write itself. The music or cadence of the line and its rhythm are of utter importance to me—the speaking voice of the poet in me who, if I'm lucky, sometimes speaks up.

Other work

Kemp was the main founder of the Aotearoa New Zealand Poetry Sound Archive, launched in 2004. [23] [24] The archive is housed in the Special Collections at the University of Auckland Library and in the Alexander Turnbull Library, and features recordings of 171 New Zealand poets reading their work, and is accompanied by text files, photographs and bibliographical notes about the poets. [25] Together with Jack Ross, Kemp has edited several collections of New Zealand poetry in performance, including Classic New Zealand Poets in Performance (2006), Contemporary NZ Poets in Performance (2007) and New New Zealand Poets in Performance (2008). [7]

In 2022, Kemp published Raiment, her memoir of her life up to age 25. [1] [26] Stephanie Johnson praised Kemp's treatment of her university years, "a rollcall of many of the most well-known poets, artists and scholars of that generation", and Kemp's gift in "the stringing together of images to create an imagined or recalled world". [27] Wendy Parkins, reviewing the memoir for Landfall, said Kemp "writes frankly and with an appealing humility about her uncertainties and false starts in both writing and relations", but also noted she would have liked Kemp to discuss in more detail what she thinks now about her life choices and why she became a poet. [28] Steve Braunias in Newsroom called it "small but perfectly charming", and his review concludes: [26]

With its sunny disposition, its bright idealism, and its neatly detailed settings (hippies in the bush in Titirangi, Friday night drinks hosted by Karl Stead at a bar on Constitution Hill), Raiment is a fascinating document of a young life lived in thrall to love and language.

Honours and awards

In 1979, Kemp was awarded a New Zealand Literary Fund writer's bursary of $4,000. [29] In 1991, Kemp was awarded a PEN-Stout Fellowship at Victoria University of Wellington. [4]

In the 2005 Queen's Birthday Honours, Kemp was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to literature. [30]

In 2008, Kemp was a Writer in Residence at the Chateau de Lavigny, Switzerland. [31]

Personal life

Kemp's first marriage was at age 20 and did not last; she was divorced by her mid-20s. [1] [26] In 2007, Kemp moved to Germany with her husband, Dieter Riemenschneider; they had lived together in Frankfurt previously from 1994 to 1999. [32] [17] As of 2008 they live together in Kronberg im Taunus; Kemp is a member of the church choir. [33] [34]

Selected works

Poetry

Prose

As editor

Related Research Articles

Fleur Adcock was a New Zealand poet and editor. Of English and Northern Irish ancestry, Adcock lived much of her life in England. She is well-represented in New Zealand poetry anthologies, was awarded an honorary doctorate of literature from Victoria University of Wellington, and was awarded an OBE in 1996 for her contribution to New Zealand literature. In 2008 she was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to literature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cilla McQueen</span> New Zealand poet (born 1949)

Priscilla Muriel McQueen is a New Zealand poet and three-time winner of the New Zealand Book Award for Poetry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tusiata Avia</span> New Zealand poet and childrens author

Donna Tusiata Avia is a New Zealand poet and children's author. She has been recognised for her work through receiving a 2020 Queen's Birthday Honour and in 2021 her collection The Savage Coloniser won the Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. The Savage Coloniser and her previous work Wild Dogs Under My Skirt have been turned into live stage plays presented in a number of locations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jack Ross (writer)</span> New Zealand poet and novelist

Jack Ross is a New Zealand poet, novelist, translator, editor and lecturer in creative writing. A trilogy of novels has been published by two different publishers, Alan Brunton's Bumper Books and Titus Books.

Elizabeth Edwina Smither is a New Zealand poet and writer.

Michael James Terence Morrissey is a New Zealand poet, short story writer, novelist, essayist, editor, feature article writer, book reviewer and columnist. He is the author of thirteen volumes of poetry, two collections of short stories, a memoir, two stage plays and four novels and he has edited five other books.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rachel McAlpine</span> New Zealand poet, novelist and playwright

Rachel Phyllis McAlpine is a New Zealand poet, novelist and playwright. She is the author of 30 books including poetry, plays, novels, and books about writing and writing for the internet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Eggleton</span> New Zealand poet and writer

David Eggleton is a New Zealand poet, critic and writer. Eggleton has been awarded the Ockham New Zealand Book Award for poetry and in 2019 was appointed New Zealand Poet Laureate, a title he held until 2022. Eggleton's work has appeared in a multitude of publications in New Zealand and he has released over 18 poetry books (1986–2001) with a variety of publishers, including Penguin.

Alistair Ian Hughes Paterson is a New Zealand writer and poet. A long-time editor of the literary journal Poetry New Zealand, Paterson was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to literature, in the 2006 Queen's Birthday Honours.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jessica Le Bas</span> New Zealand poet

Jessica Le Bas is a Nelson-based poet from New Zealand.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Airini Beautrais</span> New Zealand poet and short-story writer (born 1982)

Airini Jane Beautrais is a poet and short-story writer from New Zealand.

Heather Avis McPherson was a feminist poet, publisher and editor who played a key role in supporting women artists and writers in New Zealand. In 1976, she founded the Spiral Collective group and Spiral, a women's arts and literary journal that later published monographs. Her poetry book A Figurehead: A Face (1982) was the first book of poetry published in New Zealand by an openly lesbian woman. She published three further collections during her lifetime, and an additional two collections were published posthumously by fellow Spiral members.

Anna Jackson is a New Zealand poet, fiction and non-fiction writer and an academic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarah Broom</span> New Zealand poet

Sarah Broom (1972–2013) was a New Zealand poet and university lecturer. Her work included two books of poetry, Tigers at Awhitu and Gleam. After her early death from lung cancer, the Sarah Broom Poetry Prize, was established to remember and celebrate her life and work.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Harlow</span> New Zealand poet

Michael Harlow is a poet, publisher, editor and librettist. A recipient of the Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship (1986) and the University of Otago Robert Burns Fellowship (2009), he has twice been a poetry finalist in the New Zealand Book Awards. In 2018 he was awarded the Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement, alongside playwright Renée and critic and curator Wystan Curnow Harlow has published 12 books of poetry and one book on writing poetry.

Chris Price is a poet, editor and creative writing teacher. She lives in Wellington, New Zealand.

Owen Leeming is a New Zealand poet, playwright, radio presenter and television producer. While working in broadcasting in London and New Zealand in the 1950s and 1960s, he had short stories and poems published in various magazines and journals, and wrote stage and radio plays. In 1970 he was the first recipient of one of New Zealand's foremost literary awards, the Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship, after which he published his first collection of poetry.

Judith Muriel Lonie was an Australian poet. She published one volume of poetry during her lifetime, with a second published posthumously; her poetry was often about personal or intimate subjects but treated in an impersonal way. Her poems have been included in several anthologies. Her husband, the New Zealand poet Iain Lonie, wrote three volumes of poetry about the intense grief he felt after her death.

Tayi Tibble is a New Zealand poet. Her poetry reflects Māori culture and her own family history. Her first collection of poetry, Poūkahangatus (2018), received the Jessie Mackay Prize for Poetry at the 2019 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. Both Poūkahangatus and her second collection, Rangikura (2021), have been published in the United States and the United Kingdom, and in 2023 she was the first Māori writer to have work published in The New Yorker.

Siobhan Harvey is a New Zealand and UK author, editor and creative writing lecturer. She writes poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction. In 2021, she was awarded the Janet Frame Literary Trust Award for Poetry.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Kemp, Jan (2022). Raiment. Massey University Press. ISBN   978-1-991151-14-8.
  2. 1 2 3 "Poems from unborn part of her mind". The Press . 28 July 1978. p. 15. Retrieved 26 October 2023.
  3. ↑ "Poet's Homecoming Marked By New Book". Scoop Independent News. Otago University Press. 18 December 2001. Retrieved 27 August 2018.
  4. 1 2 3 4 International Who's Who in Poetry 2005 (13th ed.). London: Europa. 2004. p. 839. ISBN   185743269X. OCLC   264476170.
  5. ↑ "N.Z. poets on record". The Press . 2 December 1974. p. 19. Retrieved 26 October 2023.
  6. ↑ "N.Z. poets on record". The Press . 30 April 1975. p. 11. Retrieved 26 October 2023.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Jan Kemp". Read NZ Te Pou Muramura. Retrieved 26 October 2023.
  8. 1 2 Newton, John (22 October 2014). "Page 6. The 1970s and the 'Freed' generation". Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Retrieved 26 October 2023.
  9. ↑ Hall, Bernadette (Summer 2002). "Down memory lane". New Zealand Review of Books (52). Retrieved 27 October 2023.
  10. 1 2 Wilson, Janet (2006). "Kemp, Jan". In Robinson, Roger; Wattie, Nelson (eds.). The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acref/9780195583489.001.0001. ISBN   978-0-1917-3519-6. OCLC   865265749 . Retrieved 26 October 2023.
  11. ↑ Simpson, Peter (4 February 1978). "Poetic riches from N.Z. women". The Press . p. 17. Retrieved 26 October 2023.
  12. ↑ Hunt, Janet (2010). "Fellow artists: Jan Kemp, Alistair Campbell and Sam Hunt". Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Retrieved 26 October 2023.
  13. ↑ Newton, John (22 October 2014). "Poster for Four New Zealand Poets tour, 1979 (1st of 4)". Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Retrieved 26 October 2023.
  14. ↑ "Four poets to visit Parliament". The Press . 26 June 1979. p. 6. Retrieved 26 October 2023.
  15. ↑ "Poets to visit Christchurch". The Press . 3 July 1979. p. 7. Retrieved 26 October 2023.
  16. ↑ Cooper, Ronda (Spring 1991). "A pre-occupation with family". The New Zealand Review of Books (3). Retrieved 27 October 2023.
  17. 1 2 "Jan Kemp". Ōrongohau | Best New Zealand Poems. 2001. Retrieved 28 October 2023.
  18. ↑ Neale, Emma (Summer 2001). "Fruit 'n nut". The New Zealand Review of Books (56). Retrieved 28 October 2023.
  19. ↑ Bramwell, Murray (Spring 2006). "Bubble jets of yearning". The New Zealand Review of Books (75). Retrieved 28 October 2023.
  20. 1 2 Fell, Cliff (1 June 2013). "Each Chamber was a Stanza of Dreams". Landfall Review Online. Retrieved 28 October 2023.
  21. ↑ Horrocks, John (Winter 2013). "Remembering". The New Zealand Review of Books (102). Retrieved 28 October 2023.
  22. ↑ Reid, Nicholas (March 2014). "Jan Kemp: Background" (PDF). Poetry New Zealand. 48. Puriri Press & Brick Row: 8.
  23. ↑ Locke, Terry (2007). "Review: Sounds like Us". Journal of New Zealand Literature (25): 174–177. JSTOR   20112451 . Retrieved 26 October 2023.
  24. ↑ "Aotearoa New Zealand Poetry Sound Archive". aonzpsa.blogspot.com. Retrieved 27 August 2018.
  25. ↑ Kemp, Jan; King, Edmund; Ross, Jack (2002–2004). "Aotearoa New Zealand Poetry Sound Archive records". Aotearoa New Zealand Poetry Sound Archive.
  26. 1 2 3 Braunias, Steve (6 June 2022). "Oh dear, again". Newsroom. Retrieved 27 October 2023.
  27. ↑ Johnson, Stephanie. "Raiment by Jan Kemp". Academy of New Zealand Literature. Retrieved 28 October 2023.
  28. ↑ Parkins, Wendy (1 August 2022). "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Woman". Landfall Review Online. Retrieved 28 October 2023.
  29. ↑ "Poet given bursary". The Press . 4 August 1979. p. 10. Retrieved 26 October 2023.
  30. ↑ "Queen's Birthday honours list 2005". Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. 6 June 2005. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  31. ↑ "Residence". Château de Lavigny. Archived from the original on 27 August 2018. Retrieved 27 August 2018.
  32. ↑ Kemp, Jan (23 July 2022). "How poet Jan Kemp found her voice at 60 after moving to Berlin". Stuff. Retrieved 27 October 2023.
  33. ↑ "10 Questions with Jan Kemp". Massey University Press. 24 January 2022. Retrieved 27 October 2023.
  34. ↑ "Jan Kemp: pioneering NZ poet shares new memoir Raiment". Radio New Zealand. 30 April 2022. Retrieved 27 October 2023.
  35. ↑ Baysting, Arthur (1973). The young New Zealand poets. (Auckland, tr. Hong Kong): Heinemann Educational Books. OCLC   488437109.
  36. ↑ Kemp, Jan (1976). Against the softness of woman. Dunedin, N.Z.: Caveman Press. ISBN   090856225X. OCLC   2615756.
  37. ↑ Ensing, Riemke, ed. (1977). Private Gardens: An Anthology of New Zealand Women Poets. Dunedin: Caveman Press.
  38. ↑ Kemp, Jan (1979). Diamonds and gravel. Wellington, N.Z.: Hampson Hunt. OCLC   11119728.
  39. ↑ Kemp, Jan (1992). The other hemisphere: poems. Washington, DC: Three Continents Press. ISBN   089410716X. OCLC   813598181.
  40. ↑ Kemp, Jan (1980). Ice-breaker poems. Auckland: Coal Black Press. OCLC   973579118.
  41. ↑ Kemp, Jan; National Museum Art Gallery (Singapore) (1988). Five poems. Singapore: National Museum lArt Gallery. OCLC   153298680.
  42. ↑ Kemp, Jan (2001). Only one angel: poems. Dunedin, N.Z.: University of Otago Press. ISBN   1877276170. OCLC   49199896.
  43. ↑ Kemp, Jan; Denny, John; Eyley, Claudia Pond; Puriri Press (2002). The sky's enormous jug: love poems old & new. Auckland, N.Z.: Puriri Press. ISBN   0908943229. OCLC   50862009.
  44. ↑ Kemp, Jan; Riemenschneider, Dieter (2012). Dantes Himmel. Mainz am Rhein: Verlag André Thiele. ISBN   9783940884909. OCLC   812608145.
  45. ↑ Kemp, Jan; Magagnino, Aldo (2016). Dante's heaven = Il cielo di Dante. OCLC   1032591785.
  46. ↑ Kemp, Jan; Riemenschneider, Dieter; Puriri Press (2010). Nine poems from Le Château de Lavigny. Auckland, N.Z.: Puriri Press. OCLC   1029662330.
  47. ↑ Kemp, Jan; Tranzlit (Firm) (2012). Voicetracks: poems 2002-2012. Auckland [N.Z.]; Kronberg im Taunus [Germany]: Puriri Press ; Tranzlit. ISBN   9780908943388. OCLC   796786926.
  48. ↑ Kemp, Jan; Puriri Press (2012). Jennet's poem: wild love. Auckland, N.Z.: Puriri Press. OCLC   796466167.
  49. ↑ "Landfall 120". The Press . 5 March 1977. p. 15. Retrieved 26 October 2023.
  50. ↑ New Zealand poets read their work., Waiata Recordings, 1974, OCLC   946802545
  51. ↑ Ross, Jack; Kemp, Jan (2006). Classic New Zealand poets in performance. Auckland, N.Z.: Auckland University Press.
  52. ↑ Ross, Jack; Kemp, Jan (2007). Contemporary New Zealand poets in performance. Auckland, N.Z.: Auckland University Press. ISBN   9781869403959.
  53. ↑ Ross, Jack; Kemp, Jan (2008). New New Zealand poets in performance . ISBN   978-1869404093.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.