Owen Leeming

Owen Leeming (born 1930) is a New Zealand poet, playwright and former radio presenter and television producer. He was the first recipient of one of New Zealand's foremost literary awards, the Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship in 1970, and now lives in France.

Owen Leeming
Born1930 (age 90–91)
Christchurch, New Zealand
Occupation
  • Poet
  • playwright
  • media producer
Notable awardsKatherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship
1970
Spouse
Mirielle Leeming
​
(m. after 1970)​

Early life

Leeming was born in Christchurch, New Zealand and attended St Bede's College.[1] He studied French and music at the University of Canterbury.[2]

Career

After university, Leeming went to France to study musical composition, having been granted a government bursary, but left after a year.[3] He subsequently moved to London and worked as a producer at the BBC.[2][3]

He worked in broadcasting in London, Australia and New Zealand for a number of years.[1] Notably, in 1961, Leeming interviewed Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath for the BBC, in a radio broadcast entitled Two of a Kind: Poets in Partnership.[4][5] In 1962, Leeming interviewed the three surviving sisters of New Zealand author Katherine Mansfield. The interview was recorded for the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation archives.[6][7]

Leeming's early poems and stories were published in various English journals, including The London Magazine and The Guinness Book of Poetry.[2][3] During his time in London he participated in poetry discussion group "The Group" along with fellow Antipodean expat Peter Porter.[8] Leeming also wrote a number of plays for the stage and for radio.[2]

He was the first recipient of the Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship award in 1970. This award allowed Leeming to spend a year in Menton, France as a writer in residence at the Villa Isola Bella, where Katherine Mansfield lived from 1919-1920.[3][9]

Leeming's most well-known poem, The Priests of Serrabone,[1] was published in the journal Landfall in 1962.[10] It was described by New Zealand writer James K. Baxter in 1971 as "masterly", and as "one of the documents to which I turn for reassurance in my private clumsy labours to undo the harm the Catholic Church does to her young".[11]

Leeming's first collection of poems, Venus is Setting, was published in 1972.[12]

After time in Africa and Asia as a Unesco consultant, Leeming settled in France and worked as an OECD translator.[3] In 2014, two of his poems were published in journal Poetry New Zealand, forty years since his last poems were published in New Zealand.[13]

His experiences travelling back to New Zealand with his wife generated his second collection of poems, Through Your Eyes, published in 2018.[14]

Personal life

Leeming had a brief relationship in the 1960s with British television personality Jan Leeming. Although they never married, she took his name by deed poll and did not change it after their separation.[15]

Leeming currently lives in Paris with his wife Mireille.[3][16]

References
  1. Baxter, James K. (2015). "Short Biographies of Some New Zealand Writers". In Weir, John Edward (ed.). Complete Prose Volume 4. Wellington, New Zealand: Victoria University Press. ISBN 978-1-7765-6037-0. Retrieved 20 October 2020.
  2. Hughes, Janet (2006). "Leeming, Owen". 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 20 October 2020.
  3. "Owen Leeming". The Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi. Retrieved 20 October 2020.
  4. Popova, Maria. "Poets in Partnership: Rare 1961 BBC Interview with Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes on Literature and Love". Brain Pickings. Retrieved 20 October 2020.
  5. Clark, Heather L. (Winter 2005). "Tracking the Thought-Fox: Sylvia Plath's Revision of Ted Hughes". Journal of Modern Literature. 28 (2): 100. doi:10.1353/jml.2005.0025. S2CID 162728132. Retrieved 20 October 2020.
  6. "Interviews of the three sisters of Katherine Mansfield". National Library of New Zealand. Retrieved 20 October 2020.
  7. "The Sisters of Kezia". Ngā Taonga. The New Zealand Archive of Film, Television and Sound Ngā Taonga Whitiāhua Me Ngā Taonga Kōrero. Retrieved 20 October 2020.
  8. "Cold Hub Press ~ Owen Leeming". Cold Hub Press. Retrieved 15 November 2020.
  9. Manson, Bess (23 August 2020). "Writing with the ghost of Katherine Mansfield". Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 20 October 2020.
  10. Leeming, Owen (1962). "The Priests of Serrabone". Landfall. 16 (4): 316–323. Retrieved 15 November 2020.
  11. Baxter, James K. (June 1971). "Reply to a Review of 'The Rock Woman'". Landfall. 25 (2): 369. Retrieved 20 October 2020.
  12. Leeming, Owen (1972). Venus is Setting. Christchurch, New Zealand: Caxton Press.
  13. Leeming, Owen (2013). "Boeing Boeing / Charleston, Charleston". Poetry NZ. Auckland, NZ: Puriri Press (47): 58. ISSN 0114-5770.
  14. Leeming, Owen (2018). Through Your Eyes: Poems Early and Late. Christchurch, New Zealand: Cold Hub Press. ISBN 978-0-4734-4419-8.
  15. "Leeming's life and loves". Chronicle Live. 15 December 2003. Retrieved 20 October 2020.
  16. Leeming, Jan. "New Zealand Earthquake - Blog". Jan Leeming. Retrieved 26 October 2020.
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