Janet Charman (born 1954) is a poet from New Zealand.

Background

Born in 1954, Charman grew up in the

Hutt Valley The Hutt Valley (or 'The Hutt') is the large area of fairly flat land in the Hutt River valley in the Wellington Region of New Zealand. Like the river that flows through it, it takes its name from Sir William Hutt, a director of the New Zea ...

and

Taranaki Taranaki is a regions of New Zealand, region in the west of New Zealand's North Island. It is named after its main geographical feature, the stratovolcano Mount Taranaki, Taranaki Maunga, formerly known as Mount Egmont. The main centre is the ...

. Charman initially trained as a nurse and worked in social welfare. After receiving an MA in English from the

University of Auckland The University of Auckland (; Māori: ''Waipapa Taumata Rau'') is a public research university based in Auckland, New Zealand. The institution was established in 1883 as a constituent college of the University of New Zealand. Initially loc ...

she worked as a tutor in the university's English department. In 1997 was named as a

writer in residence Artist-in-residence (also Writer-in-residence), or artist residencies, encompass a wide spectrum of artistic programs that involve a collaboration between artists and hosting organisations, institutions, or communities. They are programs that pr ...

and received a Literary Fellowship. She also received a fellowship from the

Hong Kong Baptist University Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) is a public Liberal arts education, liberal arts university with a Christian ethics, Christian education heritage in Kowloon Tong, Kowloon, Hong Kong. The university was established as Hong Kong Baptist ...

. Charman continues to teach writing classes and is based in Auckland.

Works

Charman's poems are often set in the suburbs of New Zealand and draw on issues that relate specifically to women, including topics such as

sexuality Human sexuality is the way people experience and express themselves sexually. This involves biological, psychological, physical, erotic, emotional, social, or spiritual feelings and behaviors. Because it is a broad term, which has varied ...

victimisation Victimisation ( or victimization) is the state or process of being victimised or becoming a victim. The field that studies the process, rates, incidence, effects, and prevalence of victimisation is called victimology. Peer victimisation Peer ...

, and motherhood. She is known for her stylistic choices such as using limited punctuation and capitalisation, including lowercase for the pronoun 'I'. Collections of poetry published by Charman include: * ''Drawing Together'' (1985,

Spiral In mathematics, a spiral is a curve which emanates from a point, moving further away as it revolves around the point. It is a subtype of whorled patterns, a broad group that also includes concentric objects. Two-dimensional A two-dimension ...

), with Marina Bachmann and Sue Fitchett * ''2 deaths in 1 night'' (1987, New Women's Press) * ''red letter'' (1992, Auckland University Press) * ''end of the dry'' (1995, Auckland University Press) * ''Rapunzel Rapunzel'' (1999, Auckland University Press) * ''Snowing Down South'' (2002, Auckland University Press) * Cold Snack (Auckland University Press, 2007) * The Pistils (Otago University Press, 2022) She has also been publishing in several

anthologies In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs, or related fiction/non-fiction excerpts by different authors. There are also thematic and ge ...

including ''The New Poets: initiatives in New Zealand poetry'' (1987, edited by Murray Edmond and Mary Paul) and ''Yellow Pencils: Contemporary Poetry by New Zealand Women'' (1988, edited by

Lydia Wevers Lydia Joyce Wevers (19 March 1950 – 4 September 2021) was a New Zealand literary historian, Literary criticism, literary critic, editor, and book reviewer. She was an academic at Victoria University of Wellington for many years, including act ...

). Poems by Charman have appeared in the ''Best New Zealand Poems'' series, including in 2005 and 2007.

Awards

In 2008, her collection of poems, ''Cold Snack'' was awarded the Poetry Award at the

Montana New Zealand Book Awards The Ockham New Zealand Book Awards are literary awards presented annually in New Zealand. The awards began in 1996 as the merger of two literary awards events: the New Zealand Book Awards, which ran from 1976 to 1995, and the Goodman Fielder Wa ...

Background

Works

Awards

References

Further reading