John Ash
(June 29, 1948 - living) U.K.
Poet and literary critic
John Ash was born in Manchester, England, the son of schoolteachers. With a brief break to attend the University of Birmingham (B.A. 1969) and to take a post-graduation year in Cyprus, he remained in the city of his birth until 1985, at which time he moved to New York.
In New York, he became associated with the New York School of Poets and formed a strong and lasting friendship with its leading proponent, John Ashbery. After stints teaching at Iowa and Berkeley, in 1996 he moved to Istanbul, where he has lived since, teaching at Bosphorus University, before moving to Kadir Has University.
His lifelong interest in Byzantium (especially its achitecture) is a major theme which runs through his poetry, fiction and travel writing, along with family friends and the three major cities he has lived in. As well as his books (largely published by Carcanet), his work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Village Voice, The Washington Post and Paris Review.
During this time, several of his books, including Selected Works and To the City, have appeared in Turkish translation, published by Yapi Kredi Publications, affiliated with the bank of the same name. Deluxe editions of The Anitolikon, published in a side-by-side English and Turkish edition by Yapi Kredi, featured illustrations by Peter Hristoff, a noted Turkish artist of Bulgarian Christian origin living in New York.
His most recent books include Disbelief (1987), The Burnt Pages (1991), A Byzantine Journey (1995), and Selected Poems (1996). Following Byzantine Journey, and other travel writing, Ash led tours relevant sites and in 2006 wrote the script for the documentary "Istanbul for Aficionados". He has also appeared on a BBC guide to Istanbul.
His poetry has appeared in many publications including the New Yorker, the New York Times, the Village Voice, Paris Review and Cornucopia.
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