Writer Profiles

    Rachel Ovens

    // Writer

    RACHEL OVENS (née Moore) is a New Zealand author and writer of non-fiction. She is a graduate of The University of Otago in History. She has trained in 1980s and working as a Registered Comprehensive Nurse for 40 years in the New Zealand Health System. Her Mother Alexa was a Karitane Nurse. Rachel is pleased to join the Christian writer’s group. She finds the history behind the Bible fascinating and is strengthened by her own personal relationship with God. She was born in rural NZ of the South Island (Te Waipounamu) and went on to travel the world with her family. Her father, a Presbyterian Minister, did further studies in the religions of the world and took them on some daring adventures. Rachel lives in NZ with her husband Michael and their three grown children. She is author of a science literacy, internationally distributed, non-fiction book ‘The Tale of Mrs Possum, A Reflection on NZ Society’ (2017) and with her brother the autobiography of their father (2010). She is currently working on her next project about the human immune system.

    Photo: Rachel Ovens

    The Tale Of Mrs Possum

    THE TALE OF MRS POSSUM: A Reflection On New Zealand Society, is a work of non-fiction and science literacy. Grand Theft Auto was a popular computer game in the 1990s, and this book could well be thought of as a form of Grand Theft Literati. However an extensive and deliberate bibliography of sources and images is provided. This is intended to encourage readers and non-readers alike down their own path of discovery. The proper crediting of sources, through footnoting and bibliography, honours the work of authors and artists I have consulted and read during ten years of research for this book. It is also a benevolent nod to my University of Otago history training in referencing. One third of my sources are reputable books, one third online internet sources and one third current global and local media (film, music, newspapers and magazines). I have adopted the New Zealand possum into the title of this book. She is the underdog; reviled colonial pest, symbol of the public intellectual, and a reflection of countless struggles with environmental issues by Team Planet Earth. Paradoxically the possum is an erected species in Australia. Team Planet Earth’s population of some 7.9 billion people must work together inclusively for the future of our world. 10 chapter non-fiction science literacy book. Fully illustrated with 228 colour and 50 B&W infographics, art and photographs. Includes preface, epilogue and index.

    Email: 64cannington@gmail.com
    Writer: Rachel Ovens

    More Than You Know

    MORE THAN YOU KNOW: Albert Moore – An Autobiography. More Than You Know, the title of a jazz song, is the life story of academic pioneer Albert Moore (1926-2009). Born in Island Bay Wellington, New Zealand on the cusp of the Great Depression, he trained as a teacher in Wellington and a theological minister at Knox College, Dunedin. His distinguished academic career included gaining a doctorate in Manchester, UK, in 1954, and being an exchange student in Göttingen, Germany, where be became fluent in German. In 1959 he married Alexa, a well-travelled Karitane nurse from Tapanui. Albert took his young family overseas to Chicago in the 1960s to study comparative religions under Mircea Eliade and Paul Tillich. Moore published many papers and books. His magnum opus is generally agreed to be Iconography of Religions (1977), which analyses world religions through the lens of art. With his wife he attended many international conferences and was a visiting academic at Princeton University in 1980. He was Associate Professor of religious studies at Otago University for 25 years, and after retiring continues to be active in publishing and teaching. Albert believed strongly in the transformational power of art. He and Alexa – lovers of life and people – participated in Dunedin’s art and culture scene well into their retirement.

    Email: 64cannington@gmail.com
    Writer: Rachel Ovens

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