John Edward Gallas FEA (born 11 January 1950) is a New Zealand born poet who in 2016 was the Joint Winner of the Indigo Dreams Pamphlet Prize and the St Magnus International Festival poet.

Biography

Gallas was born in

Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

in New Zealand and is of Austrian descent, the son of Frederick, ''né'' Fritz Eduard Gänzl, an educator, and Nancy Gallas, ''née'' Agnes Ada Welsh. He is the younger brother of the historian and writer

Kurt Gänzl Kurt-Friedrich Gänzl (born 15 February 1946) is a New Zealand writer, historian and former casting director and singer best known for his books about musical theatre. After a decade-long playwriting, acting and singing career, and a second car ...

. He attended the

University of Otago The University of Otago () is a public university, public research university, research collegiate university based in Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand. Founded in 1869, Otago is New Zealand's oldest university and one of the oldest universities in ...

in his native New Zealand, and won a Commonwealth Scholarship to

Merton College, Oxford Merton College (in full: The House or College of Scholars of Merton in the University of Oxford) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the 126 ...

to study Medieval English Literature and Old Icelandic and has since lived and worked in York, Liverpool and various other locations in England as a bottlewasher, archaeologist and teacher. ''The Little Sublime Comedy'' was Gallas's tenth

Carcanet Press Carcanet Press is a publisher, primarily of poetry, based in the United Kingdom. Originally a student magazine devised by undergraduates collaborating between Oxford and Cambridge, it was refounded in 1969 by Michael Schmidt. In 2000 it was nam ...

collection. Gallas is the editor of books of translations, including ''52 Euros'', ''The Song Atlas'' and ''Rhapsodies 1931'', also published by Carcanet, and the librettist for David Knotts' ''Toads on a Tapestry'', and for Alasdair Nicolson's opera ''The Iris Murders''. His poem 'Cat' was ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

s 'Poem of the Week' in December 2014.Biography of John Gallas - Carcanet Press website
/ref> A review of Gallas's ''The Extasie'' (2021) by Maria Crawford of ''

The Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and also published digitally that focuses on business and economic Current affairs (news format), current affairs. Based in London, the paper is owned by a Jap ...

'' said, "New Zealand-born, UK-based Gallas fills his 12th Carcanet collection with resounding echoes of John Donne, Thomas Wyatt and John Clare. In a series of love poems set against the patterns of the English landscape,

allas Allas is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Anti Allas (born 1977), Estonian politician * (born 1950), Swedish politician * Teet Allas (born 1977), Estonian footballer *Yasmine Allas (born 1967), Somali-Dutch actress and writer S ...

applies a modern-day directness to lyrical expressions of intimacy." His translation of twenty-five poems by

Amado Nervo Amado Nervo (August 27, 1870 – May 24, 1919) also known as Juan Crisóstomo Ruiz de Nervo, was a Mexican poet, journalist and educator. He also acted as Mexican Ambassador to Argentina and Uruguay. His poetry was known for its use of metaphor a ...

, ''Poems of Faith and Doubt'', was also published in 2021 and was followed by a number of anthologies and translations of sacred poetry with the same publisher. Over the years he has worked with his brother Kurt Gänzl on translations of

Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poet, essayist, translator and art critic. His poems are described as exhibiting mastery of rhythm and rhyme, containing an exoticism inherited from the Romantics, an ...

, Verhaeren,"Ten Poems (translated by John Gallas and Kurt Ganzl)"
PNReview 186, Vol. 35, No 4, March – April 2009 Materlinck, Yourcenar,

Anna de Noailles Anna, Comtesse Mathieu de Noailles (Anna Elisabeth Bibesco-Bassaraba de Brancovan; ; 15 November 1876 – 30 April 1933) was a French writer of Romanian, Greek and Bulgarian descent, a poet and a socialist feminist. She was the only female poet ...

, Nerval, Florian and

Borel Borel may refer to: People * Antoine Borel (1840–1915), a Swiss-born American businessman * Armand Borel (1923–2003), a Swiss mathematician * Borel (author), 18th-century French playwright * Borel (1906–1967), pseudonym of the French actor ...

, among others. Gallas is a Fellow of the

English Association The English Association is a subject association for English dedicated to furthering the study and enjoyment of English language and literature in schools, higher education institutes and amongst the public in general. It was founded in 1906 by ...

, won the International

Welsh Poetry Competition The International Welsh Poetry Competition is an annual English language poetry award and the largest of its kind in Wales. The contest was founded in 2007 by Welsh writer, poet and photographer Dave Lewis. It was launched on St David's Day 2007 ...

in 2009, was the Joint Winner of the Indigo Dreams Pamphlet Prize in 2016 and was the

St Magnus Festival The St Magnus International Festival is an annual, week-long arts festival which takes place at midsummer on the islands of Orkney, off the north coast of mainland Scotland. History and management The festival was founded in 1977 by a group inc ...

poet in

Orkney Orkney (), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago off the north coast of mainland Scotland. The plural name the Orkneys is also sometimes used, but locals now consider it outdated. Part of the Northern Isles along with Shetland, ...

in the same year. He held the position of John Clare 'The Visit' Poet in 2019, and Sutton Hoo Saxon Ship Oet in 2020. In November 2021 he won the Parkinson's Art Poet of the Year 2021 competition with his poem 'The Night My Great Aunt Invented The Anarchist Hop'., and in 2022 was awarded the National Poetry Library's Brian Dempsey Memorial Poetry Prize, which led to the publication of his collection ''17 Paper Resurrections''.https://www.dempseyandwindle.com/johngallas.html

List of books by Gallas

*''Practical Anarchy'' (Carcanet) *''Flying Carpets Over Filbert Street'' (Carcanet) *''Grrrrr'' (Carcanet) *''Resistance is Futile'' (Carcanet) *''The Ballad of Robin Hood and the Deer'' (Agraphia Press), pictures by Clifford Harper *''The Ballad of Santo Caserio'' (Agraphia Press), pictures by Clifford Harper *''The Song Atlas'' (Carcanet) *''Star City'' (Carcanet) *''The Book with Twelve Tales'' (Carcanet) *''Fucking Poets'' (3 vols) (Cold Hub Press, New Zealand) *''40 Lies'' (Carcanet) pictures by Sarah Kirby *''Fresh Air & The Story of Molecule'' (Carcanet) *''52 Euros'' (Carcanet) *''Pacifictions'' (Cold Hub Press, New Zealand) *''The Alphabet of Ugly Animals'' (Magpie Press) *''Mad John's Walk'' (Five Leaves : Occasional Pamphlets) January 2017 *''The Little Sublime Comedy'' (Carcanet) *''17 Very Pacific Poems'' (Indigo Dreams) *''The Blood Book'' Gerolstein Press, New Zealand (2018) *''The Extasie'' (Carcanet) 2021 *''The Gnawing Flood'' (Cerasus Press 2021) * Amado Nervo, ''Poems of Faith and Doubt'' (Oxford: SLG Press, 2021), collected and translated *''Where Grace Grows Ever Green: Middle English Lyrics'' (Oxford: SLG Press, 2021), collected and translated *''The High Roof of Heaven'' (Oxford: SLG Press, 2022), collected and translated *Petrus Borel: ''Rhapsodies 1931'', translated from the French by John Gallas and

, (Carcanet Classics) 2022 *''17 Paper Resurrections'' (Dempsey & Windle) 2022 *''Drops in the Sea of Time: Women & God'' (Oxford: SLG Press, 2022), collected and translated *''Fly Not Too High: Gabrielle de Coignard & Vittoria Colonna'' (Oxford: SLG Press, 2022), collected and translated *''This Far Place:

Gabriela Mistral Lucila Godoy Alcayaga (; 7 April 1889 – 10 January 1957), known by her pseudonym Gabriela Mistral (), was a Chilean poet-diplomat, educator, and Catholic. She was a member of the Secular Franciscan Order or Third Franciscan order. She was ...

'' (Oxford: SLG Press, 2023), collected and translated *''Touchpapers'' (Oxford: SLG Press, 2023), collected and translated *

Reinhard Sorge Reinhard Johannes Sorge (29 January 1892 – 20 July 1916) was a German dramatist and poet. He is best known for writing the Expressionist and radically iconoclastic stage play '' The Beggar'' (''Der Bettler''), which won the Kleist Prize in 1 ...

, ''Take Flight to God'' (Oxford: SLG Press, 2023), translated from German *''The Alphabet of Ugly Animals'' (Cerasus) – forthcoming *''Billy 'Nibs' Buckshot: The Complete Works'' (Carcanet 2024) *''Collected Poems of Reinhard Sorge'' (SLG Oxford 2024)

References

External links

John Gallas Poetry - official websiteGallas
on the

Internet Movie Database IMDb, historically known as the Internet Movie Database, is an online database of information related to films, television series, podcasts, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and biograp ...

Welsh Poetry Competition 2009
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gallas, John 1950 births University of Otago alumni Alumni of Merton College, Oxford New Zealand male poets New Zealand people of Austrian descent New Zealand expatriates in England Living people Fellows of the English Association Translators of Charles Baudelaire Translators of Gérard de Nerval