John Gosslee is an American poet, and editor.

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Born in 1980 in Flowood, Mississippi, to David Gosslee, a Veitnam War draftee, and Baptist minister to a multiracial congregation, and Francie Gosslee (née Guillermin), a classicaly trained pianist, and sunday school teacher. He lived in the pastorium of Toxish Baptist Church, and is the eldest of three children. He began homeschool at age 2 and was raised in Mississippi until 1984. He lived in  Fort Wayne, Indiana, Clarksville, Tennessee and in Wiesbanden, Germany, during the fall of the Berlin Wall. His pre-teen through early twenties were spent in Nashville, Tennessee, where he was first published in 1997.

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In 2003 he enlisted in the Air Force, and received the Air Force Achievement Medal for meritorious service during a 15 month combat zone tour, and received an Honorable Discharge two days before Christmas 2006.

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In 2007 Gival Press signed his first chapbook of poetry, 12: Sonnets for the Zodiac, to be published in English, with French, and Spanish translations in one volume. He moved to Virginia for a Studio Art program at Liberty University.

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John Gosslee founded Fjords Review in December 2010. In 2021 the magazine received a Pushcart Prize. He purchased and introduced diversity to C&R Press in 2013. The press has since received IPPY and IBPA awards. He owned and managed PANK from 2015-2019, and founded PANK Books in 2016 to give underrepresented writer’s access and visibility. He edited and curated 50 Contemporary Women Artists (Schiffer, 2018) with Heather Zises. The 334 page fine art survey book received a Foreword Reviews Women’s Studies Award and an IBPA Art & Photography Award. 

 

John Gosslee’s poetry is published in Oxford American, Poetry Ireland, Yale Review, Asimov’s Science Fiction, The Southampton Review, Gulf Coast, Grain, Arc Poetry Magazine, Rattle, Carousel, Popshot Magazine, and other publications. He published three chapbooks of poetry, a hybrid genre book, and a book of iconoclastic art. His latest chapbook of poetry is Fish Boy (Nomadic Press, 2018).

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He recieved a Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art in 2012, and an MFA in Poetry from Queen's University Charlotte, in 2013, where he studied with Claudia Rankine, and Morri Creech.