Jack Ross (writer)

Jack Ross (born 6 November 1962 in Auckland), is a New Zealand poet, novelist, translator, editor and lecturer in creative writing.^[1] A trilogy of novels has been published by two different publishers, Alan Brunton's Bumper Books (Volume 1) and Titus Books.

Biography[]

Born on Auckland's North Shore, Ross was raised and educated in the East Coast Bays. After completing degrees in English and Italian at the University of Auckland, Ross was given a Commonwealth Scholarship to study in the UK in^[2] and was awarded a PhD in English and Comparative Literature by the University of Edinburgh. He is a Lecturer specialising in Academic and Creative Writing at Massey University's Albany campus.

From 2002 to 2005 Ross was editor of the literary magazine brief.^[3] He has also edited other literary magazines The Pander (co-editor 1998–99),^[4] Spin (co-editor 1999–2003),^[5] Landfall (guest editor: issue 214, 2007),^[6] and Poetry NZ (guest editor: issue 38, 2008).^[7]

Criticism[]

Ross is little known outside New Zealand avante garde literary circles. He was described by in Landfall as "a leading contributor to the field of experimental writing in New Zealand",^[8] Mark Houlahan remarked in New Zealand Books [15 (2) (June 2005): 14–15], that "Nobody else in New Zealand writes quite like Ross, though some of Bill Manhire's fictions in The New Land are precedents." Other reviewers have been less positive: wrote that "Not all the contents are evil, but the spirit of darkness certainly prevails," about Nights with Giordano Bruno [in JAAM 16 (2001): 185]. According to Joe Wylie "Outside of literati farm, this sort of thing has a very limited life expectancy ... Can Ross move beyond this? Does he choose not to?" [Takahe 54 (2005) 63].

Works[]

• City of Strange Brunettes. ISBN 0-473-05446-9 (Auckland: Pohutukawa Press, 1998) [poems]
• (with Gabriel White) A Town like Parataxis. ISBN 0-473-07104-5 (Auckland: Perdrix Press, 2000) [poems / photos] [1]
• Nights with Giordano Bruno. ISBN 0-9582225-0-9 (Wellington: Bumper Books, 2000) [novel (R.E.M. Trilogy, 1)] [2]
• (with Gabriel White) The Perfect Storm. ISBN 0-473-07350-1 (Auckland: Perdrix Press, 2000) [poems / video]
• The Writing Skills Workshop. prod. Robert van der Vyver (Otago University: Higher Education Development Centre, 2001) [workbook / video]
• Chantal's Book. ISBN 0-473-08744-8 (Wellington: HeadworX, 2002) [poems] [3]
• Monkey Miss Her Now. ISBN 0-476-00182-X (Auckland: Danger Publishing, 2004) [short stories]
• Trouble in Mind. ISBN 0-9582586-1-9 (Auckland: Titus Books, 2005) [novella] [4]
• A Bus Called Mr Nice Guy. ISBN 0-473-10526-8 (Auckland: Perdrix Press, 2005) [poems / travelogue]
• The Imaginary Museum of Atlantis. ISBN 0-9582586-8-6 (Auckland: Titus Books, 2006) [novel (R.E.M. Trilogy, 2)] [5]
• To Terezín. Social and Cultural Studies, 8. ISSN 1175-7132 (Auckland: Massey University, 2007) [poems / travelogue] [6]
• Papyri: Love Poems & Fragments from Sappho. ISBN 978-0-473-12397-0 (Auckland: Soapbox Press, 2007)
• EMO. ISBN 978-1-877441-07-3 (Auckland: Titus Books, 2008) [novel (R.E.M. Trilogy, 3)]^[9]
• The Return of the Vanishing New Zealander. ISBN 978-0-9864507-6-1. (Dunedin: Kilmog Press, 2009) [poems]
• Kingdom of Alt. ISBN 978-1-877441-15-8. (Auckland: Titus Books, 2010) [short stories / novella]

Jack Ross has also edited and co-edited a number of publications.

References[]