 Owen's many honors include a Bread Loaf Scholarship, the Henry H. Bellamann Foundation Award, a Yaddo Fellowship, and the 1971 gold medallion North Carolina Award for Literature.Owen died of liver cancer in Rex Hospital in Raleigh, North Carolina, at the age of 56.Owen has had appearances in periodicals, including "New East", "Southern Literary Journal", "Southern World", "Tar Heel", and numerous poetry journals.