Richard Berengarten

MA Cantab. (English), Dip. Ling. UCL (Diploma in Linguistics, University College London), FEA (Fellow of the English Association)

My main work is writing poems. I am especially interested in the long poem as a literary form. While some of my books have an English setting, for example Avebury (1972) and Croft Woods (1999), I am committed to an internationalist perspective in literature and have specific interests in the theory and practice of literary translation. Several of my books have a Greek theme and locus, for example Black Light (1983), which is dedicated to the memory of George Seferis. The Blue Butterfly (first published 2006), In a Time of Drought (fp 2005) and Under Balkan Light (fp 2008), all of which are set in former Yugoslavia, constitute my ‘Balkan Trilogy’. Changing (2016) is based on the Chinese classic, the Yijing. The Volta Project (International Literary Quarterly), and the Albero Project (Margutte) are both concerned with multilingual translations of a single poem.

Writing and study skills; Anglophone poetry; comparative literature; literary translation.

Theories of poetics; the Jungian theory of synchronicity; number as a cohering principle in poetry; and the interview and the manifesto as literary genres.

Xu Zhimo Silver Willow Award for a European Poet, 2017

Bridport Poetry Prize, highly commended, 2013

Manada International Prize for Poetry, Macedonia, 2012

Great School Lesson Oratorio, Serbia, 2007       

Morava Charter International Award for Poetry, Serbia, 2005       

H. H. Wingate–Jewish Quarterly Award for Poetry, 1992       

CELJ (Council of Learned Journals of America), runner-up for ‘Best Special Issue 1994'’ for Out of Yugoslavia (co-editor), 1992       

Yeats Club, first prize, poetry translation, 1990       

Yeats Club, runner-up, poem and translation, 1989       

Arvon Poetry Competition, Duncan Lawrie Award for Poetry, 1982       

Arts Council of Great Britain, Writer’s Fellowship, Victoria Centre for Adult Education, Gravesend, 1979-81  

Keats Memorial Prize for Poetry, 1974       

Arts Council of Great Britain, Writer’s Grant, 1973       

Eric Gregory Award for Poetry, 1972