Jan Kemp (writer)

Janet Mary Riemenschneider-Kemp MNZM (born 12 March 1949) is a New Zealand poet, short story writer, memoirist and public performer of her work. She lives in Kronberg im Taunus, Germany.

Jan Kemp

MNZM
At the 2012 Frankfurt Book Fair
At the 2012 Frankfurt Book Fair
BornJan Mary Kemp
(1949-03-12) 12 March 1949
Hamilton, New Zealand
Occupation
  • Poet
  • short story writer
  • memoirist
EducationUniversity of Auckland (MA)
SpouseDieter Riemenschneider

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 

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.[2][3]

Career

Kemp began contributing to the poetry magazine The Word is Freed (usually abbreviated to Freed) in the late 1960s.[1]: 196 [4][5] The magazine had been established in 1968 by a group of poets at the University of Auckland, and Kemp was one of the few women who performed poetry with the group.[4] She was also the only woman poet whose work was included in the 1973 anthology The Young New Zealand Poets edited by Arthur Baysting.[4][5][6]

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".[6]

In winter 1979, Kemp toured New Zealand as part of the 'Gang of Four' poetry tour, with Sam Hunt, Alistair Campbell and Hone Tuwhare.[4][7] 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".[8]

Kemp 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).[3] In 1980, she was the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council Poetry Representative at the South Pacific Festival of Arts in Papua New Guinea.[3]

Kemp was the chief instigator of the Aotearoa New Zealand Poetry Sound Archive, launched in 2004.[9] 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.[10]

In 2007, Kemp moved to Germany with her husband, Dieter Riemenschneider.[11]

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

My view of how I write hasn’t really changed since I first wrote of this in the anthology The Young New Zealand Poets (1973) [...] 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.[12]

Selected works

Poetry
  • Contributor to The Young New Zealand Poets (1973), edited by Arthur Baysting[13]
  • Against the Softness of Woman (1976)[14]
  • Diamonds and Gravel (1979)[15]
  • The Other Hemisphere: Poems (1992)[16]
  • Ice-breaker Poems (1980) (pamphlet)[17]
  • Five Poems (1988)[18]
  • Only One Angel: Poems (2001)[19]
  • The Sky's Enormous Jug — Love Poems Old & New (2002) [20]
  • Dante's Heaven (2003), translated into German by Dieter Riemenschneider and published as Dantes Himmel (2012);[21] translated into Italian by Aldo Magnanino and published as Il Cielo di Dante (2016)[22]
  • Nine Poems from Le Château de Lavigny (2010)[23]
  • Voicetracks (2012)[24]
  • Jennet's Poem: Wild Love (2012)[25]

Prose
  • Raiment (memoir, 2022)[1]

As editor
  • New Zealand Poets Read Their Work (1974)[26]
  • Classic New Zealand Poets in Performance (2006)[27]
  • Contemporary NZ Poets in Performance (2007)[28]
  • New New Zealand Poets in Performance (2008).[29]

Honours and awards

In 1991, Kemp was awarded a PEN-Stout Fellowship at Victoria University of Wellington.[3]

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]

Further reading

Listen to Kemp's poetry recordings on The Poetry Archive.

References
  1. Kemp, Jan (2022). Raiment. Massey University Press. ISBN 978-1-991151-14-8.
  2. "Poet's Homecoming Marked By New Book". Scoop Independent News. Otago University Press. 18 December 2001. Retrieved 27 August 2018.
  3. International Who's Who in Poetry 2005 (13th ed.). London: Europa. 2004. p. 839. ISBN 185743269X. OCLC 264476170.
  4. "Jan Kemp". Read NZ Te Pou Muramura. Retrieved 26 October 2023.
  5. Newton, John (22 October 2014). "Page 6. The 1970s and the 'Freed' generation". Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Retrieved 26 October 2023.
  6. 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.
  7. Hunt, Janet (2010). "Fellow artists: Jan Kemp, Alistair Campbell and Sam Hunt". Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Retrieved 26 October 2023.
  8. 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.
  9. "Aotearoa New Zealand Poetry Sound Archive". aonzpsa.blogspot.com. Retrieved 27 August 2018.
  10. Kemp, Jan; King, Edmund; Ross, Jack (2002–2004). "Aotearoa New Zealand Poetry Sound Archive records". Aotearoa New Zealand Poetry Sound Archive.
  11. "Jan Kemp | poetryarchive.org". www.poetryarchive.org. Retrieved 27 August 2018.
  12. Reid, Nicholas (March 2014). "Jan Kemp: Background" (PDF). Poetry NZ. Puriri Press & Brick Row. 48: 8.
  13. Baysting, Arthur (1973). The young New Zealand poets. (Auckland, tr. Hong Kong): Heinemann Educational Books. OCLC 488437109.
  14. Kemp, Jan (1976). Against the softness of woman. Dunedin, N.Z.: Caveman Press. ISBN 090856225X. OCLC 2615756.
  15. Kemp, Jan (1979). Diamonds and gravel. Wellington, N.Z.: Hampson Hunt. OCLC 11119728.
  16. Kemp, Jan (1992). The other hemisphere: poems. Washington, DC: Three Continents Press. ISBN 089410716X. OCLC 813598181.
  17. Kemp, Jan (1980). Ice-breaker poems. Auckland: Coal Black Press. OCLC 973579118.
  18. Kemp, Jan; National Museum Art Gallery (Singapore) (1988). Five poems. Singapore: National Museum lArt Gallery. OCLC 153298680.
  19. Kemp, Jan (2001). Only one angel: poems. Dunedin, N.Z.: University of Otago Press. ISBN 1877276170. OCLC 49199896.
  20. 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.
  21. Kemp, Jan; Riemenschneider, Dieter (2012). Dantes Himmel. Mainz am Rhein: Verlag André Thiele. ISBN 9783940884909. OCLC 812608145.
  22. Kemp, Jan; Magagnino, Aldo (2016). Dante's heaven = Il cielo di Dante. OCLC 1032591785.
  23. Kemp, Jan; Riemenschneider, Dieter; Puriri Press (2010). Nine poems from Le Château de Lavigny. Auckland, N.Z.: Puriri Press. OCLC 1029662330.
  24. Kemp, Jan; Tranzlit (Firm) (2012). Voicetracks: poems 2002-2012. Auckland [N.Z.]; Kronberg im Taunus [Germany]: Puriri Press ; Tranzlit. ISBN 9780908943388. OCLC 796786926.
  25. Kemp, Jan; Puriri Press (2012). Jennet's poem: wild love. Auckland, N.Z.: Puriri Press. OCLC 796466167.
  26. New Zealand poets read their work., Waiata Recordings, 1974, OCLC 946802545
  27. Ross, Jack; Kemp, Jan (2006). Classic New Zealand poets in performance. Auckland, N.Z.: Auckland University Press.
  28. Ross, Jack; Kemp, Jan (2007). Contemporary New Zealand poets in performance. Auckland, N.Z.: Auckland University Press. ISBN 9781869403959.
  29. Ross, Jack; Kemp, Jan (2008). New New Zealand poets in performance. ISBN 978-1869404093.
  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. Retrieved 27 August 2018.
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