James Cowan - Author

James Cowan is author of a number of internationally acclaimed books, including The Painted Shore, A Troubadour’s Testament and Letters from A Wild State.  In 1998 he was awarded the prestigious Australian Literature Society’s Gold Medal for his novel, A Mapmaker’s Dream. His work has been translated into seventeen languages.

Born in Melbourne in 1942, Cowan completed his studies in Sydney. In the 1960’s he traveled and worked in Vancouver, New York, Paris and London. For some years he lived in Marrakech and in Libya studying the Berber and Tuareg peoples. Returning to Australia in 1973, he decided to view his homeland as a foreign country. He made journeys throughout the continent, sometimes on horseback, exploring early European culture and its imprint on the land.  This led to a succession of books, The Mountain Men, The River People, and Starlight’s Trail.

James Cowan then began a ten-year study of the Aboriginal culture that led him to work, study, and finally live among Aborigines in the Center, the Far North and the Kimberly region.  This resulted in a series of books that explored Aboriginal themes: Mysteries of the Dreaming, Myths of Dreaming, Sacred Places, The Aboriginal Tradition, Two Men Dreaming and finally Messengers of the Gods all found their inspiration in traditional cultural perspectives that the author encountered during his journeys.
 
A part of his commitment to improving the lives of Aboriginal Australians entailed working in Balgo Hills, in the Tanami Desert, for two years as the art coordinator in the mid-1990s. He was able to revive a moribund art center, put in place efficient business systems, raise sufficient capital for an art and cultural center, and lift artists’ earnings to levels not seen in the industry before. As a result Warlayirti Artists Cooperative is now one of the most successful indigenous businesses in Australia. During this period he wrote two books on Aboriginal art, Wirrimanu: Art of the Balgo Hills, and Balgo, New Directions.
 
In the 1990s Cowan turned to a more global perspective in literature.  He became interested in fashioning a new prose - one that is spare, limpid, and devoid of all the old mechanisms of literary realism. This new prose is exploited in his novels A Mapmaker’s Dream, A Troubadour’s Testament, and more recently in his study, Rumi’s Divan of Shems of Tabriz. Each of these books is an attempt to re-affirm the greatness of the European and Near-Eastern traditions. Though steeped in history and imbued with a continuum between past and present, Cowan’s work is thoroughly directed toward the modern.
 
James Cowan returned to Australia after spending three years in Italy where he researched and wrote Francis: A Saints Way. Another book, Journey to the Inner Mountain, a study of St Antony of Egypt in the 3rd century was researched during this period. He now resides in the Blue Mountains, near Sydney.
 
In Montville, where he lived for four years, he oversaw the establishment of the Montville Cultural Precinct Corporation as a local government initiative, as well as the construction of an open-air theatre in the local park. The theatre precinct hosted music and theatrical events for the community.
 
James Cowan is the recipient of an honorary doctorate of Humane Letters from Grand Valley State University in Michigan for his life’s work. He has lectured throughout the world on themes related to his deep knowledge of traditional peoples, Aboriginal art, metaphysics, and literature, and has served on the Brisbane Writers Festival Committee 2003-4. He is a member of the Temenos Academy in London, an organization founded by the British poet, Kathleen Raine.
 
Some of the institutions that the author has lectured at are as follows: University of Bologna in Italy, University of Barcelona, Spain, Michigan State University MI, Grand Valley State University MI, Grand Rapids Museum MI, Temenos Academy in London, Schumacher College in Devon, Washburn University Topeka, KA, Earthwatch in Boston, Smith College MA, International Centre in New Delhi, Commonwealth Club of Rome, Australian Embassy in Madrid, as well as in many institutions in Australia. Most of these lectures, of course, have been on the subject of Aboriginal life, art and culture.
 
He was appointed to the board of QAIMEA, a newly instituted government indigenous arts organization dedicated to raising the standards, and economic output, of Queensland Aboriginal art practitioners. QAIMEA helps to formulate state government policy under the aegis of the Premier.
 
Recently, James Cowan has returned from a three-year stint in Argentina, where he researched and wrote a number of new books, including The Deposition and A Spanner in the Works.
 
He has made film documentaries (Overland with Cobb and Co) and collaborated with the Queensland Ballet in their production of Francis of Assisi.
 
Cowan was offered a three month residency in September 2010 by the Dutch Literature Foundation to collaborate in the creation of a libretto with a major Dutch composer.
 

Published Works
 

Fiction
A Voyage Around My Pipe, (New Cultures, Minneapolis, 2011?)
The Deposition, (Editorial Dunken, Buenos Aires 2007)
A Troubadour’s Testament  (Shambhala Publications 1997)
A Mapmaker’s Dream  (Shambhala Publications, Warner Books 1996)
The Painted Shore  (Trans World, Sydney 1989)
Toby’s Angel  (Wentworth Books, Sydney 1975)
A Rambling Man  (Wentworth Books, Sydney 1966)

Nonfiction
A Spanner in the Works, (Brandl & Schlesinger 2007) Sydney
Quartet, four essays on power, (Dunken 2006, Buenos Aires)
Desert Father (Shambhala Boston 2003)
Journey to the Inner Mountain(Hodder London, Sydney 2002)
Francis: a Saint’s Way   ( St Louis, London & Sydney 2001)
Two Men Dreaming   (Brandl & Schlesinger, Sydney 1995)
Messengers of the Gods  (Random House, New York,1994)
Letters from a Wild State  (Random House, New York, London 1993)
The Aborigine Tradition  (Element Books London 1995)
Mysteries of the Dreaming  (Prism Books London & Sydney 1992)
Myths of the Dreaming   (Prism Books London & Sydney 1993)
Sacred Places    (Doubleday, Sydney 1995)
Starlight’s Trail   (Simon & Schuster, Sydney 1989)
The River People  (Reed Books Sydney 1984)
The Mountain Men   (Reed Books, Sydney 1982)
Australia the Beautiful  (Reed Books Sydney 1982)
 

Art Monographs

Wirrimanu: Aboriginal Art from the Balgo Hills  (Craftsman House Sydney 1994)
Balgo: New Directions   (Craftsman House, Sydney 1998)

 
Poetry

African Journal  (Private, Libya 1972)
Petroglyphs   (Brandl & Schlesinger, Sydney 1997
 

Translation

Rumi’s Divan of Shems of Tabriz  (Chrysalis Books, London 2002)

 
For Children

Kunmangur, the Rainbow Serpent   (Barefoot Books, London 1994)

 
Occasional Essays

The Graywolf Annual Ten, Changing Community, Graywolf Press 1993.
Visions of Living Earth The Soul of Nature New York, 1994
Traveller Tales Guide 2000
The Best of Travelers’ Tales 2002
Parabola
Temenos Academy Journal

 
Foreign Publications
  

A Mapmaker’s Dream,
Hodder @ Staughton, UK, Shambhala, USA, Random House, Aust., Rizzoli, Italy, Peninsular, Spain, Empuries, Spain,       Rocco, Brazil, Calmann-Levy, France, Holon, Croatia, Knaus, Germany, Anthos, Holland, Atlantida, Argentina, Warner     Books, USA, Neazenora, Greece, Korea (peringal), Taiwan (Twin Moon) and Japan editions  also.

A Troubadour’s Testament
Hodder @ Staughton, UK, Shambhala, USA, Random House, Aust., Rizzoli, Italy, Peninsular, Spain, Empuries, Spain, Rocco, Brazil, Calmann-Levy, France, Holon, Croatia, Knaus, Germany, Anthos, Holland, Atlantida, Argentina, Warner Books, USA, Neazenora, Greece, Korea, Taiwan and Japan editions also.

Mysteries of the Dreaming
Sphinx, Switzerland, Goldman, Germany, Prism Books, UK, Ankh-Hermes, Holland.
 
Aboriginal Dreaming
Elements, UK, Luckow, Germany, HarperCollins, UK.
 
Desert Father
Shambhala, USA, Hodder & Stoughton, UK, Hodder & Stoughton Australia.
 
Messengers of the Gods
Rizzoli, Italy, Belltower, USA.
 
Letters from a Wild State
Element BooksUK, Belltower, USA.
 
The Painted Shore
Btb Germany, Transworld Australia.
 
Francis of Assisi
Liguori USA, Hodder & Stoughton UK and Australia.
 
Divan of Shems of Tabriz
Element Books UK, Editora Gente Brazil.
 

Lecture Themes

  • Aboriginal life and culture

  • The Dreaming as a mythical adventure

  • Art as an adventure of the spirit among Aborigines

  • Myth lines and their cultural significance

  • Day to day life in a remote Aboriginal community

  • Australian history

  • St Francis of Assisi and St Anthony of Egypt

  • The Ideal City in Italy

  • Early Christianity and the ascetic tradition

  • Dante and his times

  • Modern European and American poetry

  • Medieval and Renaissance art in Italy
     

Corporate Experience

James has wide experience in commerce. In the 70's he worked as a marketing and tour manager for an airline in Sydney, and he went on to run his own airline in Libya.

He has worked for Toyota, Jaguar, S.C. Johnson, AMP, Aetna Life Insurance, UTA French Airlines, Tetrapak - as a strategist - and as an audiovisual specialist. 

James's work spanned New York, Tahiti, Mauritius and Vancouver.

His extensive work experience, coupled with his wide cultural knowledge makes James a very valuable member of any ACP project team.