"Remember me"

Janet Frame died 12 years ago today

on the 29th January 2004

at Dunedin Hospital, from leukaemia.

She died, alert and conscious, comforted in the arms of loved ones.

 

 This beautiful tribute to Janet Frame was first published on the 30th January 2004 in the Dominion Post and is reproduced here with the kind permission of the artist Tom Scott.

 

'Small Farewell' by Janet Frame 

Writing letters of goodbye
we are inclined to say
because we have read
or heard it said
or knew someone who likewise went away
that small details pester the memory.

In the corner closet of your eye
in the back room of seeing
that looks out on the backyard of yesterday
who can pretend to say
what you will muffle in moth balls
or soak with insect spray 
to stop the spread of memory’s decay?

I think all I can say
from hearing a ghost speak in a Shakespeare play
is, if you were Hamlet, and I your father’s ghost,
–Remember me. 


['Small Farewell' was first published posthumously in The Goose Bath, Random House NZ, 2006. Janet Frame's Selected Poems are available in the collection Storms Will Tell, Bloodaxe, 2008.]

BBC Culture: What makes Owls Do Cry a literary classic?

There was another discussion of Janet Frame and her first novel Owls Do Cry last week on BBC Radio. Donna Coonan of Virago Modern Classics and writer and critic Stuart Kelly talked to Janice Forsyth of BBC Radio Scotland about what constitutes a literary classic.

Listen or download here: Revisiting Literary Classics (Janice Forsyth Show)

 

BBC podcast: Margaret Drabble on Janet Frame

There was a most interesting discussion about Janet Frame last week on BBC Radio 4  between Woman's Hour presenter Jane Garvey and author Margaret Drabble.

This conversation (timed at 18.35 on the podcast) marked the reissue of Janet Frame's first novel Owls Do Cry as a Virago Modern Classic. This edition includes an Introduction written by Margaret Drabble for Owls Do Cry, a book she describes as 'riveting'.

Download or listen here.
 

Neil Hegarty On Janet Frame

'A song of survival: Neil Hegarty on Janet Frame and Owls Do Cry'

Such a thoughtful, fascinating and well-researched review of Janet Frame's Owls Do Cry in The Irish Times today! The new Virago Modern Classics edition is attracting some excellent commentary, and the time is certainly long overdue for a fresh perspective to be brought upon this classic novel and on Janet Frame's oeuvre in general:

"Owls Do Cry is a devastating reflection on the character of conventional society and the dangers that await those who reject its narrowness – and as such, is profoundly chilling. It is also a vivid social document, capturing the language and texture of the postwar period. It is a heartbreaking evocation of childhood and a child’s vision of the world; and not least, it is a work of considerable lyrical beauty."

 Hegarty gives some of the history of reception of Frame's debut novel and indeed the "prurient" and "unmistakably gendered" attention to analysing her private life "for evidence of madness or eccentricity".

But, he says, Frame survived, and the work she produced is her vindication:

"she emerged victorious – and the evidence of this victory lies not in parsing excessively the stuff of her life, but in reading what she created in the course of it."

 Bravo!

http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/a-song-of-survival-neil-hegarty-on-janet-frame-and-owls-do-cry-1.2503588
 

Janet Frame: A chronology

 

Janet Frame 1924-2004

Photo: Karen Day

 

1924 Janet Paterson Frame is born in Dunedin, New Zealand

1943 – 1946 Studies at the University of Otago (English, French, Philosophy, Psychology)

1946 Publishes first adult story, ‘University Entrance’ in the New Zealand Listener

1952 The Lagoon and Other Stories published, wins Hubert Church Award for Prose

1957 Publishes first novel, Owls Do Cry

Signs with AM Heath literary agency, London, and Brandt & Brandt literary agency, New York

1958 Changes her name by deed poll to Nene Janet Paterson Clutha and reserves the name Janet Frame for her writing

1961 Faces in the Water (novel)

1962 The Edge of the Alphabet (novel)

1963 Scented Gardens for the Blind (novel)

The Reservoir: Stories and Sketches

Snowman, Snowman: Fables and Fantasies (stories)

1965  Robert Burns Fellow, University of Otago

The Adaptable Man (novel)

1966 A State of Siege (novel)

The Reservoir and Other Stories

1967  Residency at Yaddo Artists’ Community, Saratoga Springs, New York

The Pocket Mirror (poetry)

1968 The Rainbirds also known as Yellow Flowers in the Antipodean Room (novel)

1969 Residency at Yaddo

MacDowell Fellow, MacDowell Colony, New Hampshire

Mona Minim and the Smell of the Sun (children’s book)

1970 Residency at Yaddo

Intensive Care (novel)

1972 President of Honour, The New Zealand Society of Authors (PEN New Zealand Inc)

Daughter Buffalo (novel)

1974  Katherine Mansfield Fellow, Menton, France

1977 Gives paper at Cross-cultural Conference, East-West Centre, Hawaii

Guest of Honour, International PEN Congress, Sydney

1978 A State of Siege film adaptation by Vincent Ward

Honorary Doctorate of Literature from University of Otago

1979  Living in the Maniototo (novel)

1981 Signs with Curtis Brown Literary Agency, London and Sydney

1982 To the Is-land (autobiography volume 1)

1983 CBE (Commander of the British Empire)

You Are Now Entering the Human Heart (stories)

1984 Gives readings at International Authors’ Festival, Toronto

Gives readings at Christchurch Arts Festival

Turnovsky Prize for Outstanding Achievement in the Arts

An Angel at My Table (autobiography volume 2)

1985 The Envoy from Mirror City (autobiography volume 3)

1986 Honorary Foreign Member of American Academy of Arts and Letters

1987 Inaugural Frank Sargeson Fellow

1988 The Carpathians (novel)

1989 The Carpathians wins the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best Book

Omnibus edition of To the Is-land, An Angel at My Table and The Envoy from Mirror City published as An Autobiography (also known at The Complete Autobiography and An Angel at My Table)

1990 Member of the Order of New Zealand (New Zealand's highest honour)

An Angel at My Table film adaptation by Jane Campion

1992 Honorary Doctorate of Literature from University of Waikato

1993 Massey University Medal

Premi Brancati Prize, Italy

1994 President of Honour, The New Zealand Society of Authors (PEN New Zealand Inc)

Gives readings at International Festival of the Arts, Wellington as part of her public 70th Birthday Celebration

1996 Gabriela Mistral Medal, Chile

1999 Janet Frame establishes the Janet Frame Literary Trust

2003 Arts Foundation Icon Award

Inaugural Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement

2004 Janet Frame dies in Dunedin aged 79

2006 The Goose Bath (poems) published posthumously

2007 Janet Frame Literary Trust signs with The Wylie Agency New York and London

The Goose Bath wins the poetry category at the Montana New Zealand Book Awards

Towards Another Summer (novel, written 1963) published posthumously

2008 Storms Will Tell: Selected Poems published posthumously

2009 Prizes: Selected Short Stories also known as The Daylight and the Dust

2010 Dear Charles, Dear Janet: Frame & Brasch in Correspondence (fine edition)

2011 Janet Frame In Her Own Words (collected non-fiction writings)

2012 Gorse is Not People also known as Between My Father and the King (stories) published posthumously

2013 In the Memorial Room (novel, written 1974) published posthumously

The Mijo Tree (story, written 1957) published posthumously

2016 Jay to Bee: Janet Frame’s Letters to William (Bill) Theophilus Brown, 1969-71

 

Milestone for Counterpoint Press

"Quality, thoughtful publishing"

US independent literary publisher Counterpoint Press last year celebrated its 20th anniversary and this was noted in November 2015 by an interesting article in Publishers Weekly that gave some background to the history of the various imprints associated with Counterpoint LLC: Soft Skull, Counterpoint, Shoemaker & Hoard.

Counterpoint has published several of Janet Frame's posthumous and backlist titles. One of these, Between My Father and the King, was the book of theirs mentioned by Publishers Weekly that earned a front page spot in the New York Times Book Review:

"Reviews and critical success have also increased. Since the fall of 2013, the press has had 18 reviews in the New York Times Book Review, with one title making the cover."

In mid-2016 Counterpoint will release the first volume of Janet Frame's letters to her friend Bill Brown, Jay to Bee, and a fresh American edition of her autobiography An Angel at My Table is being prepared for publication later in the year.

"They publish books that matter."

 Counterpoint's Janet Frame editions:

 

 

 

There's nothing like a Dame

When Janet Frame was awarded the CBE in 1983, she said: “I’m pleased to be honoured for myself and for other writers, for it is a way of accepting writers into the esteemed company of athletes and accountants and thus recognising them as part of our daily life.” She did, however, admit “a modicum of regret” that she had not achieved the title “Dame Frame”.

(Source: 'A Biographical Note' Scoop, 29 January 2004)

Janet Frame later skipped the opportunity to become a Dame when in 1990 she was awarded New Zealand's highest honour, membership of the Order of New Zealand.

"Anyway, my American friends call me a dame," she used to say.

I know that Janet would have been delighted to hear that Jane Campion has been appointed that elusive title of 'Dame' by the New Zealand Government in the 2016 New Year Honours. It's a long-overdue recognition on the part of Campion's home country. Campion has had a stellar film-making career that of course included AN ANGEL AT MY TABLE, that brilliant and much-loved screen adaptation of Janet Frame's autobiography, that first brought Jane Campion to the attention of the general public around the world. ANGEL was released in 35 countries and continues to be widely screened to this day.

Congratulations Dame Jane! (Janet would be just a bit jealous.)

NZ ONSCREEN tribute on the occasion of Jane Campion being named Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit.

 

Janet Frame poem on a Krakow wall

Janet Frame's short but punchy poem 'Before I get into sleep with you' was projected on a wall in Krakow, Poland as part of an eMultipoetry project to promote interaction between UNESCO Cities of Literature.

Janet Frame's poem was translated into Polish by Anna Chociej:

 

Other Dunedin City of Literature poets to light up the Krakow night as part of the eMultipoetry collaboration include Emma Neale, Charles Brasch, Vincent O'Sullivan and David Eggleton.

 

Otago Daily Times report, 16 January 2016

 

VMC OWLS DO CRY Publication Day

14 January 2016

It's publication day in the UK for the latest edition of Janet Frame's first novel Owls Do Cry.

Publisher Little, Brown has produced a beautiful paperback in the Virago Modern Classics imprint and this edition is also available as an ebook.

There is an illuminating introduction by Margaret Drabble.

 

 

I love the cover - the woman looks as though she is taking a selfie! Right up to date! And that's the general opinion of Frame's work - it's fresh and relevant still, even nearly 60 years after it was first published. (And Owls Do Cry has never been out of print in all that time.)

 

 As Man Booker winner Eleanor Catton, Frame's fellow Kiwi, said at the Jaipur Literature Festival:

 

"Janet Frame is the greatest New Zealand writer. She is utterly herself. Any one of her books could be published today and it would be ground-breaking."

 

As with the other Janet Frame books available from Virago Press, the VMC edition of Owls Do Cry will be widely available around the world in non-English-speaking countries (where there is nevertheless a demand for quality English literature!) and also in British Commonwealth territories except for New Zealand and Australia where for Owls Do Cry we are served well by the Text Classics edition published by Text Publishing of Melbourne.

 There are plans afoot to release a new American edition in 2017 to mark the 60th anniversary of first publication.