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.John Gallas - Festival Poet - St Magnus International Festival - 25 June 2016
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Biography

Gallas was born in

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) 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 second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

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 ca ...

. He attended the

University of Otago , image_name = University of Otago Registry Building2.jpg , image_size = , caption = University clock tower , motto = la, Sapere aude , mottoeng = Dare to be wise , established = 1869; 152 years ago , type = Public research collegiate u ...

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 one of the Colleges of Oxford University, constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the ...

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 and founded in 1969 by Michael Schmidt. In 2000 it was named the '' Sunday Times'' millennium Small Publisher of the Year. History ''Carcanet'' was originally a li ...

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 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

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 published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nikk ...

'' 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: * (born 1950), Swedish politician * Teet Allas (born 1977), Estonian footballer * Yasmine Allas (born 1967), Somali-Dutch actress and writer See also *Alla (surname) *Allas Sea Pool Al ...

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. 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 who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticism inherited fro ...

, 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 and Greek descent, a poet and a socialist feminist. Biography Personal life Born Princess ...

, Nerval, Florian and

Borel Borel may refer to: People * Borel (author), 18th-century French playwright * Jacques Brunius, Borel (1906–1967), pseudonym of the French actor Jacques Henri Cottance * Émile Borel (1871 – 1956), a French mathematician known for his founding ...

, 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 (; sco, Orkney; on, Orkneyjar; nrn, Orknøjar), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland, situated off the north coast of the island of Great Britain. Orkney is 10 miles (16 km) north ...

in the same year. 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'.Poet of the Year Competition 2021
Parkinson's Art - Centre for Creativity, November 2021

List of books by Gallas

*''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 *Amado Nervo, ''Poems of Faith and Doubt'', SLG Publishing Oxford (2021), translator *''Where Grace Grows Ever Green: Middle English Lyrics'', (SLG Oxford) 2021 *''The High Roof of Heaven'', (SLG Oxford) 2022 *Petrus Borel: ''Rhapsodies 1931'', translated from the French by John Gallas and

, (Carcanet Classics) 2022 *''17 Paper Resurrections'' (Dempsey & Windle) 2022 *''The Alphabet of Ugly Animals'' (Cerasus) – forthcoming

References

External links

John Gallas Poetry - official websiteGallas
on the

Internet Movie Database IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

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 the United Kingdom Living people Fellows of the English Association