Jay Owens

Jay Owens is a writer, researcher, and strategist based in London. 'DUST: The Modern World In a Trillion Particles' is her first book, born out of a journey to the parched desert hinterland of California in 2016, and a desire to understand the drought-ridden, fire-burnt landscape that surrounded her. Many more visits followed.

Jay has also published on technology, media and futurism in the Guardian, New Humanist, Dirty Furniture and other design journals. Her viral 2018 essay ‘Post-Authenticity and the Ironic Truths of Meme Culture’ was published in the anthology ‘Post-Memes: Seizing the Memes of Production’ (Punctum Books, 2019).

The guiding theme of her work is an interest in late modernity, and how grand twentieth century narratives of progress and futurity come to clash with messier, more complex contemporary realities. She works at the London Review of Books and lives in London.