George Messo is an expatriate English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

 and translator who was born in rural Lincolnshire, near the town of Barton-Upon-Humber

Barton-upon-Humber

Barton-upon-Humber or Barton is a small town and civil parish in North Lincolnshire, England located on the south bank of the Humber Estuary, and at the end of the Humber Bridge. It lies east of Leeds, southwest of Hull and north northeast of the county town of Lincoln...

. He moved to Trabzon

Trabzon

Trabzon is a city on the Black Sea coast of north-eastern Turkey and the capital of Trabzon Province. Trabzon, located on the historical Silk Road, became a melting pot of religions, languages and culture for centuries and a trade gateway to Iran in the southeast and the Caucasus to the northeast...

, Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

, in 1998 and has since lived in Oman

Oman

Oman , officially called the Sultanate of Oman , is an Arab state in southwest Asia on the southeast coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by the United Arab Emirates to the northwest, Saudi Arabia to the west, and Yemen to the southwest. The coast is formed by the Arabian Sea on the...

 and Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...

. He was the editor of Near East Review from 2001 to 2007. Messo is a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society

Royal Asiatic Society

The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland was established, according to its Royal Charter of 11 August 1824, to further "the investigation of subjects connected with and for the encouragement of science, literature and the arts in relation to Asia." From its incorporation the Society...

.

Poetry

Messo's poetry collections are From the Pine Observatory (2000), Entrances (2006) and Hearing Still (2009). He appeared in the 2006 Stride anthology, The Allotment: New Lyric Poets, edited by Andy Brown.

The Economist

The Economist

The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...

has associated Messo with the so-called Istanbul School, which includes the English poet and travel writer John Ash

John Ash

John Ash may refer to:* John Ash , British physician.* John Ash , lexicographer and minister* John Ash , Member of the Legislative Assembly for Comox riding in British Columbia, Canada...

.

Translation

Messo is a prominent translator of Turkish poetry. In 2007 he was shortlisted for the Popescu Prize

Popescu Prize

Popescu Prize is a bi-annual poetry award established in 1983. It is given by the Poetry Society for a volume of poetry translated from a European language into English. Formerly called the European Poetry Translation Prize the Prize was relaunched in 2003, and renamed in memory of the Romanian...

 for European poetry translation for his versions of İlhan Berk

Ilhan Berk

İlhan Berk was a leading contemporary Turkish poet. He was a dominant figure in the postmodern current in Turkish poetry and was very influential among Turkish literary circles.-Biography:Berk was born in Manisa, Turkey in 1918 and received a teacher's training in Balıkesir...

, A Leaf about to Fall: Selected Poems (2006). Other books include both İlhan Berk's Madrigals (2008) and poetic trilogy, The Book of Things (2009), two major anthologies İkinci Yeni: The Turkish Avant-Garde (2009) and From This Bridge: Contemporary Turkish Women Poets (2010), as well as Gonca Özmen's The Sea Within (2011) and Birhan Keskin's & Silk & Love & Flame (forthcoming, 2012).

External links

• Doing the Translocal: on George Messo's Entrances by Alistair Noon
• Author profile at Shearsman Books