For the Messengers
Donut Press 2011
Paperback collection of poetry
108 pages, r.r.p. £10.00
"Jude Cowan has gone where I've never seen a jobbing journalist tread before. This is news observed with so discerning an eye that marvellous detail emerges within the poetry. Read her book. We are the richer for it." Jon Snow, Channel 4 News
"Unlike the daily news that fades from view, Jude Cowan's images linger in the memory. She creates poetry which finds the humanity amid the horror of our times. Her work is outstanding." Bill Neely, International Editor, ITN News
In early 2008 Jude began to write poems in response to the un-packaged daily news footage she was archiving for the Thomson Reuters news agency. She continued throughout what proved, globally, to be a tumultuous and historic year.
"For the Messengers draws together this work and is a startling document. Cowan has a talent for locating the key details which cut to the human centre of a story and levels a sharp eye and subtle wit wherever she turns her gaze. These skills, allied with a sure poetic gift, help her do justice to the day-to-day journalistic footworkwhich this book illuminates and celebrates." Donut Press
The Groodoyals of Terre Rouge
Dark Windows Press 2013
Paperback book of poems, prints and photographs
68 pages with colour and black & white illustrations. r.r.p. £6.95
In November 2007 Jude flew to Mauritius to visit her friend Kiran Groodoyal. Her brothers owned a mini-cab business and drove her to mysterious and sacred locations, their family farm and favourite beaches.
Later, in the printmaking studios at Camberwell School of Arts Jude developed etchings and monoprints from her photos, sketches and recollections.
This is an affectionate tribute to the life she found for a short moment on Ile Maurice. The poems look back at the history of the Groodoyals and fix a point of appreciation of the island before an accelerated pace of development would change it forever.
'a beautiful memoir, full of sunshine' Judi Sutherland, Sabotage Reviews
'an exquisite collection - I found the poems very moving and the pictures are a delight' Jacqueline Saphra
The Wires, 2012
2016
Paperback book of poems
83 pages. r.r.p. £10
An extended sequence responding to Reuters news agency stories of 2012.
The Originals
Hesterglock Press, 2017
Paperback pamphlet of poems
44 pages, fully-bound 10.79 x 17.46 cm r.r.p. £8
Poems from life as a squatter in East London in the 1980s and 1990s and alternative histories.
Love on the Isle of Dogs
Friends of Alice Publishing, 2020
Paperback graphic novel and text novel
200 pages, fully-bound 1150 x 230 x 120mm r.r.p. £12
132 black and white illustrations
LOVE ON THE ISLE OF DOGS is a true story about love and learning about psychosis. It's a poetic tale told in pictures and then in text.