Background

Christian McEwen was born on April 21, 1956, in London, United Kingdom. She is a daughter of Sir Robert McEwen, a barrister and Lady Brigid McEwen.

Education

McEwen received her Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees from the Kings College, in 1979 and 1984 respectively. She earned Master of Arts degree from the University of California in Berkeley in 1982.

Career

McEwen served at the Ban Noi Leprosy Mission in Thailand as a paramedical assistant, from 1974 to 1975. She was a counselor at mental health service Casa La Vida, for a year from 1981. For 2 years from 1984, McEwen held the position of a creative writing teacher in London, England, including her work at Fulham and South Kensington Adult Education Institute and Goldsmith’s College at University of London. McEwen joined the Brooklyn Public Library as a writing teacher and adviser to Literacy Program, staying there for 2 years from 1986. After that period of time she moved to the Parsons School of Art and Design, working as an adjunct faculty member from 1992 to 1994. Simultaneously, from 1992 to 1993, McEwen served at the Eugene Lang College as an adjunct faculty member.

For 13 years from 1996, McEwen held the position of an adjunct faculty member and lecturer of Creative Arts in Learning Program at the Lesley College (now Lesley University).

Additionally, McEwen was a writer at the Roots and Branches Intergenerational Theater for three years from 1991. She was also a publisher of the magazines, including Undiagnosed, from 1981 till 1982, and Off the Cuff, from 1984 till 1986.

McEwen is currently a contributor of articles, stories, poems, and reviews to magazines and newspapers, including Granta, American Voice, and Teachers and Writers. She has also served at Williams College's Center for Environmental Studies since 1998. As a teacher of Winter Studies Program there, she helps students to develop “a mind of winter” through disciplined exercises in writing and drawing. McEwen conducts workshops in schools and senior centers, documenting their outcome through anthologies, public readings and radio programs.

Achievements

• McEwen received the Lambda Literary Award in 1989. She also received The Quadrangle Award for Poetry in 2002. Three years later she won the Fresno Reel Pride: Directors Club Award for Best Short. In 2016, McEwen became a recipient of the Bechtel Prize.

Works

More photos

• book

  • In the Wake of Home

    (In the Wake of Home is a volume of acute tenderness: for ...)

    2004
  • Jo's Girls: Tomboy Tales of High Adventure, True Grit, and Real Life

    (For Jo's Girls, editor Christian McEwen has assembled a c...)

    1997
  • Sparks from the Anvil: The Smith College Poetry Interviews

    (Sparks from the Anvil: The Smith College Poetry Interview...)

    2015
  • World Enough & Time: On Creativity and Slowing Down

    (World Enough and Time focuses on the positive effect of d...)

    2011
  • Music Hiding in the Air 2013
  • The Alphabet of the Trees: A Guide to Nature Writing 2000

Views

Quotations: "My primary motivation for writing is a desire to bridge past and present, Scottish childhood and North American adulthood; to tease out giant conundrums of class, gender, and homophobia to make something sturdy and beautiful."

Membership

McEwen is a member of Writers Union.

Personality

McEwen's influences include John Daniel, Mary Oliver, Adrienne Rich, Scott Russell Sanders, Charles Simic, Alastair Reid, and the landscape of Scotland and western Ireland.

Interests

• nature writing, travel, poetry

Connections

Father:

Sir Robert McEwen - barrister

Mother:

Lady Brigid McEwen