Wallace - Person Sheet
Wallace - Person Sheet
NameHOLLO, Paavo Anselm Alexis
Birth Date12 Apr 1934
Birth PlaceHelsinki, Finland
Death Date29 Jan 2013 Age: 78
Death PlaceBoulder, Boulder County, Colorado
Misc. Notes
Anselm Hollo, poet, translator, and professor at Naropa University, died on January 29th of post operative pneumonia for benign meningioma.

Anselm was born Paavo Anselm Alexis Hollo, in Helsinki, Finland on April 12, 1934, to Juho Aukusti Hollo, Professor of Pedagogy at the University of Helsinki, an essayist, and a major translator of literature into Finnish, and Iris Antonina Anna Walden, a talented musician and linguist.

Anselm studied at the University of Helsinki, and lived in Germany and Austria for a time, before moving to the United Kingdom with his first wife, poet Josephine Clare, where their three children, Hannes, Kaarina and Tamsin were born.

He has been a permanent resident in the United States since the late 1960s, and has lived in Boulder, Colorado, with his wife, Jane Dalrymple-Hollo, since the mid-1980s.

Anselm Hollo was a prolific author, who published more than forty titles of poetry in the United Kingdom and in the United States, in a style strongly influenced by the American beat poets. His translation work was integrated with and informed his own writing, and introduced exciting new ideas and approaches and authors to Finnish, German and English-speaking audiences.

Reed Bye, Core Associate Professor of Poetics at Naropa University and a long-time colleague, writes of Anselm that 'as a professor at Naropa, for almost three decades, he imparted his knowledge to his students and colleagues with care and discrimination and wit, while continuing to write some of the most intelligent poetry of our time, a pared flow of measured words with penetrating insight into the world into which he looked. He is beloved of these students and friends and the treasure of his time here will continue to enrich us."

Anselm taught creative writing in a number of institutions of higher learning, including SUNY Buffalo, the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and the University of Colorado at Boulder. Since 1985, he has taught in the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at
Naropa University, where he has held the rank of Full Professor. Anselm was the recipient of many literary awards and prizes, including a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Poetry, the Government of Finland's Distinguished Foreign Translator's Award (1996), the Gertrude Stein Award in Innovative American Poetry (1996), the Harold Morton Landon Translation Award (2004), and the American-Scandinavian Foundation Award for Poetry in Translation (1981 and 1989). In 1965, he performed at the electrifying "underground" International Poetry Incarnation, London. His last public reading was also in London, in April, 2012, where he was joined by three of his fellow poets and oldest friends, Tom Raworth, Andrei Codrescu and Gunnar Harding. This event, a reunion of, as they dubbed themselves, 'joyful old savages' exemplified so much about Anselm: his international outlook, his steadfast friendship, and his 'savage joy' in living and writing and communicating, In the words of his old friend and fellow poet, Tom Raworth, 'Anselm Hollo was a major poet, a prolific and fine translator and an inspiring teacher. His death is a loss to the world of letters and intelligence.'

His loss will be felt by many joined in their love of the man and of his poetry. Anselm was predeceased by his sister Irina (Lalou), and his son, Hannes. He is survived by his brother Erkki, a leading expert in environmental law, first wife, poet Josephine Clare, children Kaarina and Tamsin, granddaughter Johanna, and his wife, artist Jane Dalrymple-Hollo.
Spouses
ChildrenHannes
2DALRYMPLE, Jane Lampton , 5G Granddaughter
Birth Date15 Oct 1954 Age: 67
Birth PlaceJackson, Hinds County, Mississippi
Marr Date10 Aug 1985
Marr PlaceBaltimore, Maryland
No Children
Last Modified 17 Jul 2016Created 12 Feb 2022 by Robert Avent