Gael Turnbull

Gael Turnbull (7 April 1928 – 2 July 2004) was a Scottish poet who was an important figure in the British Poetry Revival of the 1960s and 1970s.

Biography Turnbull was born in Edinburgh and grew up in Northern England and in Canada, where he moved with his parents at the beginning of World War II. He studied Natural Sciences at Christ's College, Cambridge, and graduated in Medicine from the University of Pennsylvania in 1951. As a doctor and anesthetist, he worked in Ontario; London, England; Ventura, California; Worcester; and Barrow-in-Furness. His poems also appeared in Origin, Cid Corman's magazine.

He returned to Edinburgh after he retired from medical practice in 1989. In this city, he worked on what he termed kinetic poems; texts for installation in which the movement of the reader and/or of the text became part of the reading experience. He died on a visit to Herefordshire of a sudden brain hemorrhage.

Selected bibliography Trio: First Poems by Gael Turnbull, Phyllis Webb, and Eli Mandel, with Phyllis Webb and Eli Mandel. Toronto: Contact Press (1954). If a Glance Could Be Enough. 16 pages. SATIS (Malcolm Rutherford) (1978). A Gathering of Poems 1950-1980. Anvil Press Poetry Ltd (1983). Circus, edited by Pamela Scott. Limited signed ed (50) edition (December 1984). IBN 0951085409 From the Language of the Heart: Some Imitations from the Gaelic of Sine Reisideach. Gnomon Distribution, 1985. While Breath Persist. 160 pages. Porcupine's Quill (1991). To the Tune of Annie Laurie: Poems. 16 pages. Akros Publications (April 1995). Helen Macdonald/Gael Turnbull/Nicholas Johnson by Helen Macdonald, Gael Turnbull and Nicholas Johnson. 118 pages. Etruscan Books (January 1997). Rattle of Scree: Poems. 20 pages. Akros Publications (Oct 1997). Transmutations. 23 pages. Shoestring Press (October 1998). A Perception of Ferns, illustrated by Raine Clarke. 16 pages. Essence Press (Sept. 2003). The Storey's Story: Memories, Stories, Poems, Images, with Rodge Glass and Jacob Polley, edited by Rodge Glass. Lancaster Litfest Publications (November, 2004). There Are Words: Collected Poems. 496 pages. Shearsman Books (2006) More Words: Gael Turnbull on Poets & Poetry. 204 pages. Edited by Jill Turnbull and Hamish White. Shearsman Books (15 September 2012). Reviews, essays, memoirs and journal pieces. Introduction by Jill Turnbull.