Wendy Jenkins (poet)
{{Short description|Australian editor and poet}}
{{Use Australian English|date=May 2024}}
Wendy Elizabeth Jenkins {{Post-nominals|country=AUS|AM}} (1952 – December 2022) was an Australian poet and editor at Fremantle Press for 43 years. She also wrote as Jenna Kinsey.
Life
Jenkins was born in Perth, Western Australia.{{Cite web |title=Wendy Jenkins |url=https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/A21676 |access-date=2024-05-22 |website=AustLit: Discover Australian Stories |publisher=The University of Queensland}} She was the fourth generation of her family to live in Fremantle.{{Cite web |last=Miller |first=Claire |date=2022-12-20 |title=VALE Wendy Jenkins AM |url=https://fremantlepress.com.au/2022/12/20/vale-wendy-jenkins-am/ |access-date=2024-05-22 |website=Fremantle Press |language=en-AU}}
As an editor at Fremantle Press, Jenkins reviewed over 10,000 manuscripts.{{Cite web |last=Wilson |first=Josh |date=2023-02-06 |title=In memory of poet Wendy Jenkins |url=https://www.joshwilson.org.au/2023/02/06/in-memory-of-poet-wendy-jenkins/ |access-date=2024-05-22 |website=Josh Wilson MP}} One of them was Albert Facey's, A Fortunate Life, which she discovered early in her career and later described as "an important social document as well as a compelling personal story simply told".{{Cite web |last=Jenkins |first=Wendy |date=2011-04-13 |title=Tales from the Backlist: A Fortunate Life turns 30 |url=https://fremantlepress.com.au/2011/04/13/tales-from-the-backlist-a-fortunate-life-turns-30/ |access-date=2024-05-22 |website=Fremantle Press |language=en-AU}} Other writers whose work she nurtured include John Kinsella, Joan London and Kim Scott.{{Cite web |last=RIchter |first=Georgia |date=2020-02-11 |title=Fremantle Press bids farewell to editor and manuscript assessor Wendy Jenkins, who retires after four decades of service to the Western Australian literary community |url=https://fremantlepress.com.au/2020/02/11/fremantle-press-bids-farewell-to-editor-and-manuscript-assessor-wendy-jenkins-after-four-decades-of-service-to-the-western-australian-literary-community/ |access-date=2024-05-22 |website=Fremantle Press |language=en-AU}}
She served on the Literature Board of the Australia Council from 1985 to 1987.{{Cite web |title=1984/1985 Annual Report |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-2498401537 |access-date=2024-05-22 |website=Trove |publisher=Australia Council |page=84 |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=1986/1987 Annual Report |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1186385128 |access-date=2024-05-22 |website=Trove |publisher=Australia Council |page=41 |language=en}}
Jenkins retired from Fremantle Press in 2019, after 43 years' service.
Awards and recognition
Jenkins was joint winner of the Western Australian Sesquicentenary Literary Competition's short story prize for "Uneasy Rider" in 1979. She and Ray Coffey won the Special Award at the 1986 Western Australian Premier's Book Awards for Portrait: A West Coast Collection.{{Cite web |title=Portrait : A West Coast Collection |url=https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/C170997 |access-date=2024-05-22 |website=AustLit: Discover Australian Stories |publisher=The University of Queensland}}
Jenkins was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in the 2017 Queen's Birthday Honours in recognition of her contribution to literature as author, editor and publisher and for her mentoring of Australian writers.{{Cite web |title=Ms Wendy Elizabeth Jenkins |url=https://honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/awards/1769796 |access-date=2024-05-22 |website=Australian Honours Search Facility}}
Selected works
= Poetry =
- Out of Water into Light, 1979
- Rogue Equations, 2000
= Young adult novels =
- Hot News, as Jenna Kinsey, 1990, republished 1997 as Jenkins
- Killer Boots, 1996
- The Big Game, 1998
- Gunna Burn, 2000
= As editor =
- Portrait: A West Coast Collection, co-edited with Ray Coffey, 1986
- No Substitute: Prose, Poems, Images, co-edited with Terri-Ann White, Anna Gibbs and Noel King, 1990
- Reading from the Left, editor, 1994
- The Moving World: Poems, by Michael Heald, 2011
References
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Category:20th-century Australian poets
Category:20th-century Australian novelists