Richard Berengarten

Richard Berengarten (born 1943) is an English poet and editor.

LifeEdit

Berengarten was born Richard Burns in London in 1943 into a family of musicians.^[1]

He published a story in the Transatlantic Review at the age of 16.^[1]

He was educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge and University College London.^[1]

He has lived in Greece, Italy, the UK, the US and former Yugoslavia.^[1]

His debut collection of poetry, The Easter Rising, was published in 1967.

While lecturing at Cambridgeshire College of Arts and Technology (now Anglia Ruskin University) in 1975 he launched and co-ordinated the Cambridge Poetry Festival, presenting international poets like John Ashbery, Allen Ginsberg, Rolf Dieter Brinkmann, Ted Hughes, Michael Hamburger and numerous others.

His poems and poetry books have been translated into more than 20 languages (the poem Volta, presented in issue 9/2009 of The International Literary Quarterly (London) - Richard Burns, Volta: A Multilingual Anthology - into 75.^[2] Crna Svetlost (Black Light) was published in Yugoslavia in 1984, Arbol (Tree) in Spain in 1986, and bilingual editions of Tree/Baum (1989) and Black Light/Schwarzes Licht (1996), both translated by Theo Breuer, were published in Germany.

He changed his surname to Berengarten (his ancestral name) on June 1, 2008.^[3]

Berengarten is a popular reader of his own poetry, and a dynamic teacher.

He lives in Cambridge, England, with his wife Melanie Rein, a Jungian psychotherapist.^[1]

WritingEdit

Berengarten's poetry is marked by its multicultural frames of reference, depth and ambitiousness of themes, and formal variety and dexterity.^[1]

His perspectives as a poet combine British, French, Mediterranean, Jewish, Slavic, American and Oriental influences. On his own work Richard Berengarten says: "I would rather think of myself as a European poet who writes in English than as an 'English' poet."^[4]

RecognitionEdit

• International Morava Poetry Prize (2005)
• Jewish Quarterly-Wingate Literary Prize for Poetry (1992)
• Yeats Club Prize (1989)
• Duncan Lawrie Prize (1982)
• Keats Memorial Poetry Prize (1974)
• Eric Gregory Award (1972)

PublicationsEdit

PoetryEdit

• The Easter Rising 1967. Restif Press, 1969.^[1]
• The Return of Lazarus. Bragora Press, 1971.^[1]
• Avebury. London: Anvil, 1972.
• Double Flute. London: Enitharmon, 1972.
• Inhabitable Space. Groningen, Netherlands: John Morann, 1976.
• Some Poems. London: Enitharmon, 1977.
• Earthquake. Knotting, UK: Sceptre Press, 1978.
• Angels. Cambridge, UK: Los Poetry Press, 1978.
• Learning to Talk: Poems. London: Enitharmon, 1980.
• The Rose of Sharon. London: Los / Enitharmon, 1980.
• Tree. London: Menard Press, 1980.
• Roots/Routes: Poems. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 1982.
• Black Light. Cambridge, UK: Los Poetry Press, 1983.
• Against Perfection. Norwich, UK: King of Hearts, 1999.
• Croft Woods. Cambridge, UK: Los Poetry Press, 1999.
• Book With No Back Cover. London: David Paul, 2003.
• For the Living: Longer poems, 1965-2000. Cambridge: Salt, 2004.
• In a Time of Drought. Beeston, Nottingham, UK: Shoestring, 2006; Cambridge, UK: Salt, 2008; Bristol, UK: Shearsman, 2011.
• The Blue Butterfly. Great Wilbraham, UK: Salt, 2006.
• The Manager: A poem. Cambridge, UK: Salt, 2008.
• Under Balkan Light. Cambridge, UK: Salt, 2008.
• For the Living: Selected writings. Cambridge, UK: Salt, 2008.
  • Volume 1: Longer poems, 1965-2000
  • Volume 3: The Blue Butterfly
  • Volume 4: In a Time of Drought
  • Volume 4: Under Balkan Light
• Imagems 1. Bristol, UK: Shearsman, 2013.
• Manual: The first 20. Paekakariki, NZ: Earl of Seacliff Art Workshop, 2006.
• Holding the Darkness: Manual: The second 20. Paekakariki, NZ: Earl of Seacliff Art Workshop, 2007.
• Holding the Sea: Manual: The third 20. Paekakariki, NZ: Earl of Seacliff Art Workshop, 2008.
• Manual: The fourth 20. Paekakariki, NZ: Earl of Seacliff Art Workshop, 2009.
• Manual: The first hundred. Bristol, UK: Shearsman, 2014.

ProseEdit

• Keys to Transformation: Ceri Richards and Dylan Thomas. London: Enitharmon, 1981.
• Anthony Dorrell: A memoir. Cambridge, UK: St. Michael's Mount, 1989.^[1]
• Anthony Rudolf & The Menard Press. Los Press Poetry, 1985.^[1]

JuvenileEdit

• Half of Nowhere. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1998; Hatman Books, 2006.^[5]

EditedEdit

• An Octave for Octavio Paz (edited by Burns & Anthony Rudolf). Farnham, UK: Sceptre Press / Menard Press, 1972.
• Ceri Richards, Drawings to Poems by Dylan Thomas (1980)
• Rivers of Life: A Gravesham anthology. Gravesend, Kent, UK: Victoria Press, 1980.
• Roberto Sanesi, In Visible Ink: Selected shorter poems, 1955-1979. Portree, Isle of Skye, UK: Aquila, 1982.
• Homage to Mandelstam (edited with George Gömöri). Cambridge, UK: Los Poetry Press, 1981.
• Out of Yugoslavia (edited with Stephen C. Markovich). Grand Forks, ND: University of North Dakota, 1993.

TranslatedEdit

• Aldo Vianello, Time of a Flower: Selected poems. Northwood, Middlesex, UK: Anvil, 1968.
• Antonis Samarakis, The Flaw: A novel (translated with Peter Mansfield). London: Hutchinson, 1969.
• Nasos Vayenas, Biography. Cambridge, UK: Lobby Press, 1978.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.^[6]

See alsoEdit

• List of British poets

ReferencesEdit

NotesEdit

External linksEdit

Poems

• Poems from The Blue Butterfly at GreatWorks
• Ten poems from The Blue Butterfly (with an accompanying prose piece)
• Richard Burns poems at Berengarten.com

Audio / video

• Richard Berengarten at YouTube

Books

• Richard Berengarten at Amazon.com

About

• Richard Burns at Salt Publishing
• Richard Berengarten at the British Council
• Berengarten.com: Richard Burns Official website
• The Companion to Richard Berengarten