Guido Pieter Theodorus Josephus Gezelle (1 May 1830[1] – 27 November 1899[2]) was an influential writer and poet and a Roman Catholic priest from Belgium.

He is famous for the use of the West Flemish dialect, but he also wrote in other languages like Dutch, English, French, German, Latin and Greek.

Gezelle was a proponent of developing the Flemish dialects independently from (now) mainstream Dutch, with its dominantly Hollandic character.

Gezelle also was a translator of poetry and prose, notably of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's Song of Hiawatha, published in 1886.

Having read the original in Roeselare in 1856 the poem interested him for its portrayal of American Indians and their relation to Christian missionaries.