History
Owens was born in Greenwood, South Carolina, and raised in mill villages and on his grandparents' small farm. His father was in the military, and the family later moved to Fort Bragg, NC, and then to Darmstadt, Germany, and Augusta, Georgia, where he graduated from the Academy of Richmond County. Most of his early childhood was lived below the poverty line, necessitating frequent relocation in and around Greenwood. His childhood was also marked by periods of domestic abuse by his stepfathers. His mother was married 6 times during his childhood and his father 5 times. Three of their marriages were to each other.
Owens was the first member of his family to attend college. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English with a minor in Education at Ohio University, continuing on to the University of North Carolina, Charlotte for a Masters Degree in English. He also earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing from the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, and taught at the middle school, high school, and college levels, including a stint as Headmaster of The Patterson School. He is the founder of the reading series, Poetry Hickory (2007 - ), author of the poetry column, "Musings," published in Outlook, editor of Wild Goose Poetry Review, founding editor of 234, former Associate Editor of Southern Poetry Review, Vice President of the Poetry Council of NC and the NC Poetry Society, Founder of The Art of Poetry at the Hickory Museum of Art, and a writer of reviews of poetry collections. He has taught creativity, writing, and poetry workshops at various schools, conferences, and conventions throughout the Southeast. Owens is recognized as a proponent of and community organizer for poetry.
Owens has completed most of his creative and critical work while living in Hickory, North Carolina, and teaching at Catawba Valley Community College. His poems have been nominated for nine Pushcart Prizes and seven Best of the Net Awards, and received awards from the Academy of American Poets, the North Carolina Poetry Society, the Poetry Society of South Carolina, the Next Generation Indie Awards, and the North Carolina Writer's Network. His poem, "So Norman Died of Course,"received a Special Mention from the Pushcart Prize Anthology for 2009 and "On the Days I Am Not My Father" and "Rails" were featured on Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac. His more than 1100 published poems have appeared in a diverse range of journals, including Georgia Review, North American Review, Poetry East, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Cimarron Review, Greensboro Review, Chattahoochee Review, Cream City Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, and Cottonwood, among others. More than 100 of his essays and reviews have appeared in Main Street Rag, The Pilot, Pirene's Fountain, and many others.
Read more about this topic: Scott Owens (poet)
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