Andrew Johnston
Photo: Peter Black
Andrew Johnston is a New Zealand poet and editor who has lived in France since 1997. He is the author of six collections of poetry: Fits & Starts (2016), Sol (2007), Birds of Europe (2000), The Sounds (1996), How to Talk (1993), which won the 1994 New Zealand Book Award for Poetry and the 1994 Jessie Mackay Best First Book Award, and Selected Poems (2023). A book of new and selected poems, The Open Window, was published in Britain in 1999 by Arc Publications.
Along with Robyn Marsack, Andrew edited Twenty Contemporary New Zealand Poets, published by Victoria University Press and Carcanet in 2009.
Born in Upper Hutt in 1963, Andrew studied at Otago University and 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. In 1995 he was New Zealand's representative at the University of Iowa's International Writing Program.
For 11 years Andrew worked for the International Herald Tribune in Paris. He is now a freelance editor and trainer for United Nations agencies and non-government organisations. He lives in Paris.