Ursula Owen

Last updated

Ursula Owen

Hon. FRSL
Born
Ursula Margaret Sachs

(1937-01-21) 21 January 1937 (age 86)
Oxford, England
Education Putney High School
Alma mater St Hugh's College, Oxford University
Bedford College
Occupations

Ursula Margaret Owen Hon. FRSL (born 21 January 1937) [1] is an English publisher, editor and campaigner for free expression.

Contents

Early life

She was born Ursula Margaret Sachs in Oxford, England, to Emma Boehm and Werner Sachs, a chemical engineer who became managing director of a multinational company dealing with non-ferrous metals. [2] Her parents were German Jews, and her mother had travelled from Berlin to Oxford to give birth to Ursula, before returning to Germany. [3] Owen spent the first 18 months of her life in Berlin, after which the family was forced to leave Nazi Germany and came to London. [4]

Education

Owen was educated at Putney High School and from there went to St Hugh's College, Oxford University, where she studied medicine and took a BA in Physiology. She then moved into the social sciences, taking a Graduate Diploma at Bedford College in London, and working for some years as a social worker and researcher into mental health issues. [5]

Career

She entered the publishing profession as an editor at Frank Cass & Co. in the early 1970s. [6] She then worked briefly at Barrie & Jenkins. In 1974, Owen became a founder director of Virago Press. [7] [8] As editorial director and later managing director she oversaw the creation of the Virago list. She remained on Virago's board until the company was sold to Little, Brown and Company in 1996. [2]

In 1990, Owen was appointed director of the Paul Hamlyn Fund and cultural policy advisor to the Labour Party. [2] The fund was established to promote and develop Labour's cultural policies under the Shadow Arts Minister Mark Fisher in the run-up to the 1992 general election. In 1993, she became editor and chief executive of Index on Censorship , a magazine for free expression founded by Stephen Spender in 1972. [9] Owen relaunched the magazine, increasing its sales and media profile. She travelled widely for the magazine. Under her editorship from 1993 to 2006, Index became a vital source on all aspects of free expression for media and human rights organisations throughout the world and won several major awards. [10]

Owen was a founder trustee of Free Word, a centre for literature, literacy and free expression in London. [11] Free Word was conceived in 2004, and Owen took it through from an idea to concrete reality, finding the funding from Norwegian foundation Fritt Ord to buy a building for the centre in Farringdon Road. [12] It opened in June 2009. Following the COVID-19 pandemic in April 2021, Fritt Ord confirmed its intention to sell the Farringdon building, which was closed and its resident organisations vacated by May 2021. [13] The Free Word Centre announced its closure on 27 May 2021. [14]

Owen is on the board of the Southbank Centre and English Touring Opera. She has been a governor of Parliament Hill Field School, on the board of the New Statesman and the committee of the Royal Literary Fund. [15] She has lived in Egypt, Lebanon and the United States. [2]

Owen is the editor of the anthology Fathers: Reflections by Daughters (Virago, 1983) [16] and Whose Cities (with Mark Fisher), published by Penguin in 1991. [2]

Owen's memoir Single Journey Only was published in 2019. [17]

She was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2020. [18]

Personal life

She was married to historian Roger Owen, whom she had met at Oxford, and they adopted their daughter Kate, although they split up 18 months later. [2] Owen has four granddaughters and is also a great-grandmother. [19] [20]

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

<i>Financial Times</i> London-based daily newspaper

The Financial Times (FT) is a British daily business newspaper printed in broadsheet and also published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nikkei, with core editorial offices across Britain, the United States and continental Europe. In July 2015, Pearson sold the publication to Nikkei for £844 million after owning it since 1957. In 2019, it reported one million paying subscriptions, three-quarters of which were digital subscriptions. The newspaper has a prominent focus on financial journalism and economic analysis rather than generalist reporting, drawing both criticism and acclaim. It sponsors an annual book award and publishes a "Person of the Year" feature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Index on Censorship</span> Campaigning publishing organisation

Index on Censorship is an organization campaigning for freedom of expression, which produces a quarterly magazine of the same name from London. It is directed by the non-profit-making Writers and Scholars International, Ltd (WSI) in association with the UK-registered charity Index on Censorship, which are both chaired by the British television broadcaster, writer and former politician Trevor Phillips. Index is based at 1 Rivington Place in central London.

Rohan Jayasekera is an English freelance journalist and advocate specialising in freedom of expression rights issues in conflict zones and repressive states. He was born in Holloway, North London, of mixed Sri Lankan-Scots-Irish parentage.

Dame Carmen Thérèse Callil, was an Australian publisher, writer and critic who spent most of her career in the United Kingdom. She founded Virago Press in 1973 and received the Benson Medal from the Royal Society of Literature in 2017. She has been described by Gail Rebuck as "the most extraordinary publisher of her generation".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Article 19</span> International human rights organisation working to defend free expression

Article 19 is an international human rights organisation that works to defend and promote freedom of expression and freedom of information worldwide. It was founded in 1987. The organisation takes its name from Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states:

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; the right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers.

Virago is a British publisher of women's writing and books on feminist topics. Started and run by women in the 1970s and bolstered by the success of the Women's Liberation Movement (WLM), Virago has been credited as one of several British feminist presses that helped address inequitable gender dynamics in publishing. Unlike alternative, anti-capitalist publishing projects and zines coming out of feminist collectives and socialist circles, Virago branded itself as a commercial alternative to the male-dominated publishing industry and sought to compete with mainstream international presses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fritt Ord (organization)</span> Norwegian private organization

Fritt Ord is a Norwegian private foundation, whose aim is to support freedom of expression and a free press. It was established on 7 June 1974 by Narvesen Kioskkompani's leaders Jens Henrik Nordlie and Finn Skedsmo as well as the lawyer Jens Christian Hauge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arvon Foundation</span> UK charitable foundation providing writing courses

The Arvon Foundation is a charitable organisation in the United Kingdom that promotes creative writing. Arvon is one of Arts Council England's National Portfolio Organisations.

Odd Kvaal Pedersen was a Norwegian journalist, author and translator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hans Fredrik Dahl</span> Norwegian historian and journalist

Hans Fredrik Dahl is a Norwegian historian, journalist and media scholar, best known in the English-speaking world for his biography of Vidkun Quisling, a Nazi collaborationist and Minister President for Norway during the Second World War. His research is focused on media history, the totalitarian ideologies of the 20th century, and the Second World War. He served as culture editor of Dagbladet 1978–1985 and has been a board member of the paper since 1996. He was a professor at the University of Oslo 1988–2009, and is now a professor emeritus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Torolf Elster</span> Norwegian journalist (1911–2006)

Torolf Elster was a Norwegian newspaper and radio journalist, magazine editor, novelist, crime fiction writer and writer of short stories. He was Director-General of the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) from 1972 to 1981.

Free Word was an international centre for literature, literacy and free expression based at 60 Farringdon Road, Clerkenwell, London. It developed local, national and international collaborations that explored the transformative power of words.

Fritt Ord Award consists of two prizes awarded by the Fritt Ord Foundation. Two prizes are awarded in support of freedom of speech and freedom of expression; the Fritt Ord Award and the Fritt Ord Honorary Award . These are awards are distributed annually during the month of May in connection with the anniversary of the liberation of Norway at the end of World War II in May 1945. Prizes are awarded to one or more persons or organizations that have contributed to areas where the organization works, especially in the work of freedom of expression. In addition to a monetary reward, the award includes a statue by sculptor Nils Aas.

<i>Caucasian Knot</i> Russian news website

Caucasian Knot is an online news site that covers the Caucasus region in English and Russian. It was established in 2001 and Grigory Shvedov is the editor-in-chief. It has a particular focus on politics and on human rights issues, including freedom of the press.

Nina Johnsrud is a Norwegian journalist who works as a crime reporter for the Oslo newspaper Dagsavisen. She was awarded the Fritt Ord Honorary Award for courageous journalism in 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Olaug Nilssen</span> Norwegian writer

Olaug Nilssen is a Norwegian novelist, playwright, children's writer, essayist and magazine editor.

The Literary Consultancy (TLC) is a UK-based editorial consultancy service that was founded in 1996, becoming the first service of its kind to offer "professional, in-depth editorial advice and assessment to anyone writing in the English language, anywhere in the world". Operating under the strapline "Literary Values in a Digital Age", TLC is based at the Free Word Centre in Farringdon Road, central London. Its founding Director was Rebecca Swift, who set up the organisation with Hannah Griffiths after they worked together at Virago Press.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexandra Pringle</span> British publisher (born 1953)

Alexandra Pringle, Hon FRSL, is a British publisher. A founding Director of Virago Press, she has been Editor-in-Chief of Bloomsbury Publishing since 2000.

Rebecca Swift was a British poet and essayist. She was co-founder in 1996 of The Literary Consultancy.

Free Media Awards is the press prizes awarded by the two foundations The Fritt Ord Foundation and the ZEIT-Stiftung.

References

  1. ↑ "Birthdays". The Guardian. London: Guardian News & Media: 37. 21 January 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Hattenstone, Simon (21 July 2001). "Profile: Ursula Owen – Voices from the margins". The Guardian . Retrieved 19 June 2009.
  3. ↑ "Ursula Owen". Refugee Voices. Retrieved 16 November 2022.
  4. ↑ Owen, Ursula (2006). "Apprenticeship in assimilation". Eurozine . Archived from the original on 16 March 2009. Retrieved 19 June 2009.
  5. ↑ "Ursula Owen". Royal Holloway, University of London . 2 June 2008. Archived from the original on 21 June 2008. Retrieved 19 June 2009.
  6. ↑ Galton, Bridget (12 November 2019). "Memoir: Ursula Owen's Single Journey Only". Ham & High . Retrieved 16 November 2022.
  7. ↑ "Virago Timeline". 3 July 2019. Retrieved 16 November 2022.
  8. ↑ Greenstreet, Rosanna (27 April 1997). "'I heard Vaclav Havel speaking on New Year's Day'". The Independent . Archived from the original on 3 November 2012. Retrieved 19 June 2009.
  9. ↑ Das, Soumitra (18 February 2006). "Noise about silence". The Telegraph . Archived from the original on 26 May 2011. Retrieved 19 June 2009.
  10. ↑ "History of Index | Fifty years of Index". Index on Censorship. Retrieved 16 November 2022.
  11. ↑ "Ursula Owen". British Library. Retrieved 23 June 2021.
  12. ↑ "Free Word in London". Fritt Ord. Retrieved 23 June 2021.
  13. ↑ Comerford, Ruth (21 April 2021). "Free Word to depart Farringdon Road base". The Bookseller . Retrieved 23 June 2021.
  14. ↑ Bayley, Sian (27 May 2021). "Free Word announces closure after venue loss". The Bookseller. Retrieved 23 June 2021.
  15. ↑ "Ursula Owen". The Orwell Foundation.
  16. ↑ Brookner, Anita (22 December 1983). "Daddy's Girl". London Review of Books . 5 (24). Retrieved 16 November 2022.
  17. ↑ Low, Robert (1 November 2019). "Review: Single Journey Only". The Jewish Chronicle . Retrieved 16 November 2022.
  18. ↑ "Ursula Owen". The Royal Society of Literature. Retrieved 16 November 2022.
  19. ↑ Lipman, Jennifer (10 October 2019). "Refugee, feminist, pioneer". The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 16 November 2022.
  20. ↑ Owen, Ursula (Autumn 2020). "Ursula Owen (bio) | Young Roger". History Workshop Journal . Oxford University Press (90): 326–327. Retrieved 16 November 2022.
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.