Andrew Johnston |
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Andrew Johnston is a poet and journalist. Born in Upper Hutt in 1963, he holds a BA in English Literature from Otago University and an MA in English Literature from Auckland University. From 1991 until 1996 he edited the books page of The Evening Post, which was twice awarded the prize for best New Zealand books page.
He is the author of four collections of poetry published by VUP: Sol published in February 2007, Birds of Europe (2000), The Sounds (1996) and How to Talk (1993), which won the 1994 New Zealand Book Award for Poetry and the 1994 Jessie Mackay Best First Book Award. A book of new and selected poems, The Open Window, was published in Britain in 1999 by Arc Publications.
In 1995 he was New Zealand's representative at the University of Iowa's International Writing Program. Since 1997 he has lived in France, where he works as an editor for the International Herald Tribune. He also edits The Page , an online digest of some of the Web’s best poems and essays, and was the 2007 J.D. Stout Fellow at Victoria University, where he spent his tenure writing a book about contemporary New Zealand poetry. Along with Robyn Marsack Andrew edited Twenty Contemporary New Zealand Poets which was published by Victoria University Press and Carcanet in 2009
Andrew Johnston's poem "Great Aunt" was selected for the online collection Best New Zealand Poems 2002. His poem "Les Baillessats" was selected for Best New Zealand Poems 2004.
His poem "The Sunflower" was named as one of 2007's Best New Zealand Poems
More information, and a selection of his poems, essays, articles and reviews, can be found on his web site.