# Jennifer Maiden

Jennifer Maiden (born 1949) is an Australian poet. She was born in Penrith, New South Wales, and has had 39 books published: 30 poetry collections, 6 novels and 3 nonfiction works. Her current publishers are Quemar Press in Australia and Bloodaxe Books in the UK. She began writing professionally in the late 1960s and has been active in Sydney's literary scene since then. She took a BA at Macquarie University in the early 1970s. She has one daughter, Katharine Margot Toohey. Aside from writing, Jennifer Maiden runs writers workshops with a variety of literary, community and educational organizations and has devised and co-written (with Margaret Cunningham Bennett, who was then the director of the New South Wales Torture and Trauma Rehabilitation Service) a manual of questions to facilitate writing by Torture and Trauma Victims. Later, Maiden and Bennett used the questions they had created as a basis for a clinically planned workbook.

## Career and works

Among Jennifer Maiden's many awards are three Kenneth Slessor Prizes for Poetry, two C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry,the overall Victorian Prize for Literature, the Harri Jones Memorial Prize, the H.M. Butterly-F.Earle Hooper Award(University of Sydney), the Grenfell Henry Lawson Festival Prize, the FAW Christopher Brennan Award for lifetime achievement in poetry, two The Melbourne Age Poetry Book of the Year awards, the overall Melbourne Age Book of the Year and the ALS Gold Medal. She has had residencies at the Australian National University, the University of Western Sydney, Springwood High School and the New South Wales Torture and Trauma Rehabilitation Service. She has been awarded several Fellowships by the Australia Council.
Her second novel Play With Knives has been translated into German as Ein Messer im Haus (dtv, 1994).
Her collection, Pirate Rain, won The Melbourne Age Poetry Book of the Year in 2010 and the N.S.W. Premier's Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry in 2011. She is the first writer to have won the Kenneth Slessor Prize three times.
In October 2011, the Australian magazine of politics, society and culture, The Monthly, listed her poetry collection, Friendly Fire (2005), as the poetry book in their selection of 20 Australian Masterpieces since 2000, when they asked 20 Australian art critics to identify "the most significant work of art in their field since 2000".
Her first UK collection, Intimate Geography, which is a selection from four of her Australian collections (Acoustic Shadow, Mines, Friendly Fire and Pirate Rain), was published by Bloodaxe Books in March, 2012.
Her collection, Liquid Nitrogen, was published by Giramondo in November, 2012, won the C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry and the overall Victorian Prize for Literature, and was shortlisted for the Griffin International Poetry Prize, the Australian Prime Minister's Awards, and the Judith Wright Calanthe Award. A chapbook of some of her new poems, The Violence of Waiting, was published by Vagabond Press in November, 2013. Her collection, Drones and Phantoms, was published by Giramondo in 2014, and won the 2015 ALS Gold Medal. Her collection, The Fox Petition, was published by Giramondo in November, 2015.
A new, revised edition of her novel Play With Knives was published online as a free download by Quemar Press in 2016, followed by its previously unpublished sequel, Play With Knives: Two: Complicity.
Maiden's collection, The Metronome, deals partly with the 2016 U.S. elections and includes their result in its epilogue. Because of topical relevance, Quemar Press uploaded its electronic edition on 9 November 2016. Giramondo published a print edition of The Metronome in March 2017.
Her fourth novel, Play With Knives: Three: George and Clare and the Grey Hat Hacker, was published online in December, 2016, as an exclusive from Quemar Press. It is a prose/verse sequel to Play With Knives, Play With Knives: Two: Complicity, and those of her poems which feature her characters George Jeffreys and Clare Collins.
Aside from writing, her artwork has appeared on several of her book covers, including The Winter Baby, Acoustic Shadow, The Trust, and some of her books published by Quemar Press. She also created three collages of photographs for Quemar Press' collection of Montaigne's ideas, Truth in Discourse: Observations by Montaigne.
Her collection, Appalachian Fall: Poems About Poverty in Power, was released by Quemar Press in 2018.
In January 2018, her novel, Play With Knives, was combined with its sequel, Play With Knives: Two: Complicity, in a paperback published by Quemar Press. This was the first time Play With Knives: Two: Complicity was published in print form.
A Selected Poems 1967-2018 by Jennifer Maiden was published from Quemar Press in February 2018.
Jennifer Maiden's recent novels in poetry and prose, Play With Knives: Three and Play With Knives: Four were published in single paperback book from Quemar Press in 2018.
The final novel in the Play With Knives Quintet, Play With Knives: Five: George and Clare, the Malachite and the Diamonds, an experimental novel in poetry and prose, was released by Quemar Press in September 2018.
Her new collection of poems, brookings: the noun, was released in early 2019 by Quemar Press.
Following her work as Writer in Residence at the NSW Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors, Jennifer Maiden and the torture and trauma clinician, academic and researcher, Margaret Bennett collaborated, in 2019, on a workbook to assist torture or trauma survivors to write of their experiences, entitled Workbook Questions: Writing of Torture, Trauma Experience.
Maiden's poetry collection The Espionage Act, was published at the beginning of 2020. In December 2019, an advance copy was included in Fairfax Media's list of most appreciated books in 2019'
In 2020, another non-fiction work by Jennifer Maiden was released, entitled The Cuckold and the Vampires: an essay on some aspects of conservative political manipulation of art and literature, including the experimental, and the conservatives' creation of conflict.
Biological Necessity: New Poems was released in 2021.
Ox in Metal: New Poems was released in 2022.
Another poetry collection by Jennifer Maiden Golden Bridge was published in January, 2023.
Her non-fiction book The Laps of the Gods: Power, Sexuality, Publishing and Literature: an exploratory essay was also published in 2023.
The China Shelf: New Poems was released in 2024.
In 2025, her collection WW III: New Poems was published.

## Literary awards

| Year | Work | Award | Category | Result |
| 1976 | The Problem of Evil | Harri Jones Memorial Prize for Poetry | — | Won |
| 1991 | The Winter Baby | Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry | — | Won |
| 1991 | The Winter Baby | Victorian Premier's Literary Awards | C.J. Dennis Prize | Won |
| 1993 | Acoustic Shadow | The Age Book of the Year Awards | Poetry | Shortlisted |
| 1993 | Acoustic Shadow | Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry | — | Shortlisted |
| 1998 | — | Christopher Brennan Award | — | Won |
| 2000 | Mines | Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry | — | Won |
| 2006 | Friendly Fire | The Age Book of the Year Awards | Book of the Year | Won |
| 2006 | Friendly Fire | The Age Book of the Year Awards | Poetry | Won |
| 2010 | Pirate Rain | The Age Book of the Year Awards | Poetry | Won |
| 2011 | Pirate Rain | Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry | — | Won |
| 2013 | Liquid Nitrogen | Griffin Poetry Prize | International | Shortlisted |
| 2013 | Liquid Nitrogen | Prime Minister's Literary Awards | Poetry | Shortlisted |
| 2013 | Liquid Nitrogen | Victorian Premier's Literary Awards | Poetry | Won |
| 2013 | Liquid Nitrogen | Victorian Premier's Literary Awards | Victorian Prize for Literature | Won |
| 2015 | Drones and Phantoms | ALS Gold Medal | — | Won |
| 2016 | The Fox Petition | Western Australian Premier's Book Awards | Poetry | Shortlisted |
| 2018 | The Metronome | Victorian Premier's Literary Awards | Poetry | Shortlisted |
| 2024 | Golden Bridge: New Poems | Prime Minister's Literary Award | Poetry | Shortlisted |