GUNNAR WÆRNESS (born 1971) is a Norwegian poet, translator, illustrator and musician living in Osby in south of Sweden. He made his literary début in 1999 with the poetry collection Kongesplint, which was the debutante prize winner of Tarjei Vesaas awarded by Norwegian Authors' Union. Wærness has written four poetry collections, but his interests and talents are spread widely in editing, translating and teaching. He has been involved in many forms of art, like illustrating, making collages and combining them with poetry. Wærness also sings, plays instruments and compose songs for the stage.

He has translated poetry of Sigitas Parulskis, Mikael Nydahl, Velimir Khlebnikov and Gennadij Ajgi. Together with Pedro Carmona-Alvarez, Wærness edited a poetry anthology Verden finnes ikke på kartet (Forlaget Oktober, 2010) (The World is not on the Map), which introduces 34 poets from 25 countries. The anthology was awarded as the best translation in 2010 by Kritikerprisen in Norway.

Gunnar Wærness says: "Poetry means a possibility of keeping doors open towards the other, whether this other be animal, human, divine, historical, collective, singular, inanimate or living. It is one of the few forms I know that can accommodate insecurity of tremendous proportions without loosing it's drive or potential to communicate."