Jean Kent was educated at the Glennie Memorial School in Toowoomba and graduated from University of Queensland with Bachelor of Arts majoring in psychology.
[1] Jean now lives on Lake Macquarie,[1] which is a feature in her verse, as well the memories and experiences formed in youth and childhood in South East Queensland.
The Hour of Silvered Mullet contemplates her rural past and lakeside present and was published by Pitt Street Poetry in 2015.
Jean Kent has received several writing grants from the Australia Council, including Overseas Residencies in Paris in 1994 and 2011.
[1] Martin Duwell writing in Australian Poetry Review described Travelling with the Wrong Phrasebooks as "an immensely likable collection, so likable that readers may miss some of its sophistication, thinking it no more than a set of poems about travels in France and Lithuania.