Kathryn Owen
From the 1999 Jack Straw Writers Anthology: “I grew up in Seattle, graduated from the University of Washington, then traveled around the country for the next 12 years. During that time I worked as a machinist, foundry worker, and garment worker. Throughout those years I was active in the trade union movement, on issues ranging from shop floor struggles over union contracts to support for Central American refugees. The last ten years of my life have been shaped by a personal tragedy. Out of that event and my previous life experience, I’ve developed an abiding interest in the relationship between personal crisis and societal change. I’m currently exploring the subject through two separate projects: I am completing a Masters degree in Adult Education, and have begun an oral history project to collect the stories of a group of individuals whose lives reflect the intersection of personal and social change.”
