John Edwin Cowen

Background

John Edwin Cowen was born on September 3, 1940, in Jersey City, New Jersey, United States. He is a son of John E. Cowen, Sr., a business owner, and Edna May O'Donnell Doerflein.

Education

John Cowen graduated from St. Peter's College (now University) in 1962. He received a Master of Arts from New Jersey City University in 1965; a Doctor of Education from Columbia University Teachers College in 1973.

Career

In 1962-1963, John Cowen was a teacher at Pinellas Park Junior High School; in 1965-1963 - reading instructor at New York University Reading Institute; in 1966-1967 - instructor in Directed Studies Department at St. Petersburg Junior College. He worked as an adjunct professor at the University of South Florida in 1967; at New Jersey City University in 1968-1969; at William Paterson University in 1974. In 1983, he was a judge for Teaneck Poetry Anthology.

In 1977-1978, he was a publisher and editor at King & Cowen Publishing. Then in Bravo Editions, New York-New Jersey, he worked as a publisher and managing editor of Bravo: The Poet's Magazine in 1980-97, and a publisher and editor - in 1998-2000.

John Cowen began his career at Fairleigh Dickinson University as an adjunct professor in the Center for Clinical Teaching (1980-1982). Then he became an assistant professor of education and reading at the School of Education, coordinator of New Jersey State Reading Specialist Certificate program, and Graduate Elementary Education Master of Arts in a Teaching program in 1995. He became a literary trustee for the estate of Jose Garcia Villa in 1997.

Achievements

• John Cowen gained rich teaching experience in such educational institutions as New York University Reading Institute, St. Petersburg Junior College, The University of South Florida, New Jersey City University, William Paterson University, Fairleigh Dickinson University. He has published poems widely in major literary magazines.

Works

More photos

• book

  • English Teacher's Portfolio of Multicultural Activities

    (Seventy-five literature-based lessons with complete repro...)

    1996
  • Poems from Dylan's Wales

    (On a visit to Wales for his reading at the first Internat...)

    2012
  • A Balanced Approach to Beginning Reading Instruction

    (A Balanced Approach to Beginning Reading Instruction: A S...)

    2003
  • Mathematics of Love: Poems

    (Like his mentor Jose Garcia Villa, John Edwin Cowen is a ...)

    2011

Views

John Cowen believes that a poem should transcend meaning; and that its magical elements include such techniques as the vivid first line, the intricacies of versification, metaphor, economy, the element of surprise, and the implosive drama of the last line, all couched within the ambience of the poet's transcendental vision. The prose meaning of the poem, therefore, is subsidiary; just as the poet discovers meaning through the writing of the poem, so will the reader discover "how the poem means." He thinks, that the lyrical poet can swing a line, and it is the swing of the line that creates musical chords as well as metaphysical essence. He believes poems require first lines that "jumpstart" the poem and are energized from start to finish by a language of action, so that the verb dances, sings, weaves, jumps, flies, and leaves the reader staggering. In his opinion, the poet must trust language, and in return, the language will entrust the poet to discover new ways of expressing things and to discover new ways of understanding them.

Membership

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  Academy of American Poets , United States

• American Literature Association , United States

• New Jersey Reading Association , United States

• 

  National Council for the Teachers of English , United States

• Bergen County Poets , United States

• 

  Association of Teacher Educators , United States

• Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development , United States

• Edward Estlin Cummings Society , United States

• 

  United Nations Society of Writers

• 

  International Reading Association

Interests

• Writers

  Jose Garcia Villa, Edward Estlin Cummings, Dylan Thomas, Robert Bly, Dana Gioia, Seamus Heaney, X. J. Kennedy

Connections

John Cowen married Jay Totten Miesegaes, a special education teacher, on June 28, 1964. They have two daughters: Jill Totten and Juliet Totten.

Father:

John E. Cowen, Sr.

Mother:

Edna May O'Donnell Doerflein

Wife:

Jay Totten Miesegaes

Daughter:

Jill Totten

Daughter:

Juliet Totten

Friend:

Jose Garcia Villa

The Philippines and United States poet, critic, and educator Jose Garcia Villa has been the greatest influence on John Cowen's thinking and poetry writing. Villa was Cowen's mentor, friend, and poetry associate for more than three decades before he died in 1997. The poet who had the greatest influence on Villa's poetry was Edward Estlin Cummings.