Richard Berengarten 

 

Distinctions, etc. 

1961 ― The Transatlantic Review, prize in national short story competition 

1962 ― Co-founded Oxbridge student magazine Carcanet  

1969 ― Arts Council of Great Britain, translator’s grant 

1970-72 ― Poetry Editor, European Judaism 

1973 ― Arts Council of Great Britain, Writers’ Grant 

1973 ― Founded the Cambridge Poetry Festival Society, as a charity. 

1975 ― Directed the first International Cambridge Poetry Festival 

1981 ― Visiting Professor, University of Notre Dame, Indiana 

1987–89 ― British Council Lectureship, Centre for Learning Foreign Languages, Belgrade 

1989–90 ― British Council Lectureship, Philological Faculty, University of Belgrade 

1995 ― Council of Learned Journals of America, runner-up award for the Best Special Issue 1994, for Out of Yugoslavia, North Dakota Quarterly, (co-editor(). 

1999–present ― Full Member (elected), Serbian Writers’ Association 

2002 (May 13) ― Keynote speaker, international conference, ‘Une poétique mondiale de la poésie?’ (‘A Global Poetics For Poetry?’ ), hosted by Michel Deguy.  Bibliothèque Nationale Française, Paris. 

2003–05 ― Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Newnham College, Cambridge 

2005–06 ― Royal Literary Fund Project Fellow 

2005–now ― Bye-Fellow, Downing College, Cambridge 

2005–2015 ― Praeceptor, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge 

2006–present ― Academic Associate, Pembroke College, Cambridge 

2007 (Jan) ― Poet-in-Residence, International Symposium on T. S. Eliot and Dante, Florence, Italy 

2008 (May) ― Delivered G. S. Fraser Memorial Lecture, Leicester Poetry Society 

2011–present ― Fellow,  The English Association 

2014–2019 ― Poetry Editor, The Jewish Quarterly 

 

Select Bibliography and References 

This bibliography has been updated to July 2022. Works dated 2007 and earlier were published under the name Richard Burns, and works dated 2008 and later, under the name Richard Berengarten. This bibliography includes writings by RB that have been translated into other languages. It excludes works by other authors translated by RB into English, and books edited by RB. 

 

Poetry books by RB in English 

Books that have gone through different editions are listed together, at the date of first publication.

1969 ― The Easter Rising 1967. Brighton: Restif Press. (pseudonym: Agnostos Nomolos) 

1972 ― Double Flute. London: Enitharmon Press.  

1972 ― Avebury. London: Anvil Press Poetry with Routledge and Kegan Paul; reprinted 2018, Bristol: Shearsman Books. 

1977 ― Some Poems, Illuminated by Frances Richards. London: Enitharmon Press. 

1980― Learning to Talk. London: Enitharmon Press.  

1980― Tree. London: Menard Press. 

1982 ― Roots/Routes (with seven monotypes by Douglas Kinsey). Cleveland, OH: Cleveland State University Poetry Center.  

1983 ― Black Light: Poems in Memory of George Seferis. Cambridge: Los Poetry Press; reprinted 1995, Norwich: King of Hearts.  

1998 ― Half of Nowhere: Riddles and Spells for Children. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; reprinted 200), Cambridge: Hatman Books. 

1999 ― Croft Woods. Cambridge: Los Poetry Press. 

1999 ― Against Perfection. Norwich: King of Hearts.  

2001 ― The Manager. London and Bath: Elliott and Thompson; reprinted 2008, Salt Cambridge: Salt Publishing; 2011; Bristol: Shearsman Books: 

2003 ― Book With No Back Cover. London: David Paul Press. 

2004 ― For the Living: Selected Longer Poems 1965–2000, Cambridge: Salt Publishing; reprinted, 2008; and 2011, Exeter: Shearsman Books. 

2005 ― In a Time of Drought. Nottingham: Shoestring Press; reprinted 2008, Cambridge: Salt Publishing; and 2011, Exeter: Shearsman Books. 

2006 ― The Blue Butterfly. Cambridge: Salt Publishing; reprinted 2008, Cambridge: Salt Publishing; and 2011, Bristol: Shearsman Books. 

2008 ― Under Balkan Light. Cambridge: Salt Publishing; reprinted 2011, Bristol: Shearsman Books. 

2015 ― Notness – Metaphysical Sonnets. Bristol: Shearsman Books. 

2016 ― Changing. Bristol: Shearsman Books. 

2022 ― The Wine Cup: Twenty-Four Villanelles for Tao Yuanming. Swindon: Shearsman Books. 

2022 ― DYAD (with Will Hill). Newton-le-Willows: Knives Forks and Spoons Press. 

 

Poetry Books by RB in Translation 

1976 ― Avebury. Italian trans. Roberto Sanesi. Macerata: La Nuova Foglio.  

1984 ― Crna svetlost (‘Black Light’). Serbo-Croat trans. Bogdana G. Bobić. Gornji Milanovac: Dečje Novine. (Bernz) 

1986 ― Arbol /Tree.  Bilingual edn.: Spanish trans. Clara Janés. Madrid: Papeles de invierno. 

1989 ― Baum (‘Tree’). German trans. Theo Breuer. Kall-Sistig: private printing. 

1990 ― Menadžer (‘The Manager’), Serbian trans. Vladimir Sekulić and Jasna B. Mišić. Titograd and Nikšić: Udruženje Književnika Crne Gore with Univerzitetska rijeć [Association of Writers of Montenegro with University Word]. 

1996 ― Schwarzes Licht (‘Black Light’). German trans. Theo Breuer. Lintig-Meckelstedt: Bunte Raben Verlag. 

2004 ― U vreme suše (‘In a Time of Drought’. Serbian trans. Vera Radojević. Belgrade: RAD. (Bernz) 

2004 ― Črna svetloba / Black Light. Bilingual edn. Slovene trans. Ana Jelnikar. Ljubljana: Aleph Publishing. 

2005 ― Mavro fos / Black Light. Bilingual edn. Greek trans. Nasos Vayenas and Ilias Lagios. Athens: Lalon Ithor.  

2007 ― Plavi leptir (‘The Blue Butterfly’). Serbian trans. Vera. V. Radojević. Kragujevac and Belgrade: Spomen Park, Kragujevački oktobar with Plava tačka [Kragujevac October Memorial Park with Blue Spot].  

2007 ― Las manos y la luz [‘Hands and Light’], bilingual edn.  Spanish trans. Miguel Teruel and Paul Scott Derrick. València: Universitat de València: Aula de Poesia 24. 

2012 ― Do vidjenja Danice: Goodbye Balkan Belle, bilingual edn. Serbian trans. Vera V. Radojević. Belgrade and Kragujevac: Srpska književna zadruga i grad Kragujevac [Serbian Literary Association and the City of Kragujevac]. 

2013 ― Во бреме на суша [Vo vreme na suša] (‘In a Time of Drought’). Macedonian trans. Lidija Nikolova, ed. Katica Kulavkova. Skopje: Diversity collection of PEN International. 

2013 ― Crna svetlost (Black Light). Serbian trans. Vera V. Radojević. Vršac: KOV. 

2015 ― O voar da bolboreta azul [The Flight of the Blue Butterfly]. Bilingual edn. Galician trans. Loreto Riveiro Álvarez and F. R. Lavandeira. Culleredo, A Coruña: Espiral Maior Auliga. 

2017b ― Igra plavog leptira / The Dance of the Blue Butterfly. Selections from The Blue Butterfly. Bilingual English and Serbian. Radojević, Vera V. (trans.). Smederevo: Meridijani [Meridians]. 

2018 ― The Blue Butterfly. A selection in English and French, trans. Sabine Huynh.
Anmgoulême: Cahiers d’approche / Notebooks of Approach. 

2020 ― Ob jezeru / Lakeside / Au bord du lac. Ifigenija Simonović, ed. and trans; Marie Chabbert and Sabine Huynh, trans. Ljubljana : Slovene PEN. 

2022 ― Pod balkanskim svetlom (‘Under Balkan Light’). Serbian trans. Vera. V. Radojević. Belgrade: Udruženje književnika Srbije [Writers Association of  Serbia]. 

 

Prose books, all in English 

1981 ― Ceri Richards and Dylan Thomas: Keys to Transformation. London: Enitharmon Press. 

1985 ― Anthony Rudolf and the Menard Press. Cambridge: Los Poetry Press. 

2012 ― Imagems 1. Bristol: Shearsman Books. 

2017 ― Richard Berengarten: A Portrait in Interviews, Selected Writings 9. Eds. Paschalis Nikolaou and John Z. Dillon,  

2016 ― Imagems 2. Bristol: Shearsman Books. 

2021 ― Balkan Spaces: Essays And Prose Pieces (1) 1984–2020. Selected Writings 10. Swindon: Shearsman Books. 

 

RB: Select work online  

2009 ― The Volta Project. Versions of RB’s poem ‘Volta’ in 90-lus languages; ed. Peter Robertson. International Literary Quarterly 9. Online at: https://interlitq.org/issue9/volta/job.php; also, ‘Border/Lines: an Introduction to the Volta Project’. Online at: https://interlitq.org/issue9/berengarten/job.php 

2012 ― ‘Richard Berengarten reading Do vidjenja Danice: Goodbye Balkan Belle’. Berkeley: Lunch Poems. Hosted by Robert Hass. Online at: https://www.uctv.tv/search-details.aspx?showID=22619 

2015 ― ‘An interview with the Cambridge poet, Richard Berengarten, also known as Richard Burns, about his life and work’. Ancestors series. Interviewed by Alan Macfarlane; ed. Sarah Harrison. Online at: https://www.sms.cam.ac.uk/media/2010297  

2015 ― ‘Octavio Paz in Cambridge, 1971’. The Fortnightly Review. Online at: https://fortnightlyreview.co.uk/2015/07/octavio-paz/ 

2017-present ― The Albero Project. ‘Introduction’. Margutte. Online at: https://www.margutte.com/?p=23972&lang=en]; The Albero Project. ‘A Forest of Trees’. Versions of RB’s ‘Tree’ in 20-plus languages.. Online at: https://www.margutte.com/?p=22640&lang=en, The Albero Project. ‘Index’. Ed. by RB with Silvia Pio. Margutte. In  English and Italian.  Online at: https://www.margutte.com/?p=33683&lang=en 

2019 ― ‘Richard Berengarten reads a selection of his poems on Synchronicity’. Intro. Roderick Main. Tuscany: The Pari Center. Online at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaUw0ZYNCf8 

2020 ― ‘Crann’: film, with a musical setting for three voices by composer/dramaturg Nick Roth, based on Gabriel Rosenstock’s Irish version of RB’s ‘Tree’, Festival of Literature in the Irish language, IMRAM, Dublin. Online at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFuZM_tD-fA 

 

Key critical writings on RB (in books and online) 

2009 ― Aleksandar Petrov. ‘The Blue Butterfly Effect’. International Literary Quarterly 7. Online at: https://interlitq.org/issue7/aleksandar_petrov/job.php 

2009 ― Stephen Wilson. ‘Hath Not a Jew Hands?’ International Literary Quarterly 8. Online at: https://interlitq.org/issue8/stephen_wilson/job.php 

2009 ― Maria Filippakopoulou. ‘Foreign in our Own Country’. International Literary Quarterly 9. Online at: https://interlitq.org/issue9/filippakopoulou/job.php 

2010 ― Tan Chee Lay. ‘Cross-Cultural Numerology and Translingual Poetics: Chinese Influences on the Poetry of Richard Burns’. In A Delicate Touch:  Essays on Chinese Influences and Chinese Genres: 1-18. Singapore: McGraw Hill. 

2011 ― Norman Jope, Paul Scott Derrick and Catherine E. Byford (eds). The Salt Companion to Richard Berengarten. Essays by 34 authors. Cambridge: Salt Publications. Reprinted 2016 as The Companion to Richard Berengarten, Bristol: Shearsman Books.   

2016–7 ― Béatrice Bonhomme (ed.). L’œuvre de Richard Berengarten. Including poems by RB in French, Breton, Chiac and Occitan. Contributors and translators: Elodie Broad, Marie Chabbert, Melissa Chiasson, Robert Davreu, Paul Scott Derrick, Rhisiart Hincks, Sabine Huynh, Aurelia Lassaque, Paschalis Nikolaou and Anthony Rudolf. Nu(e) 64. 

2019 ― Paul Scott Derrick and Sean Rys (eds.). Managing The Manager: Critical Essays on Richard Berengarten’s Book-length Poem. Essays by Mike Barrett, Paul Scott Derrick, Manana Gelashvili, A. Robert Lee, Patrick Query, Anthony Rudolf, Sean Rys, Anthony Walton, Tyrone Williams and Kay Young. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars. 

2020 ― Ming Dong Gu. ‘From the Book of Changes to the Book of Changing: a Route to World Literature through Chinese Culture’. International Communication of Chinese Culture 7(3):1-17. Online at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/344268158 

2022 ― Andrew Frisardi. ‘Richard Berengarten’s Blue Butterfly’. In Frisardi, Ancient Salt: Essays on Poets, Poetry, and the Modern World. Eugene OR: Resource Publications, 138-147. 

2022 ― The Book of CHANGING. Paschalis Nikolaou  and Richard J. Smith (eds.)  Essays by Mike Barrett, Bob DeVine, Paul Scott Derrick, Eleanor Goodman, Ming Dong Gu, Tze-Ki Hon, Jeremy Hooker, Katz, Lucas Klein, Hank Lazer, Owen Lowery, Roderick Main, Paschalis Nikolaou, Geoffrey Redmond, Heyong Shen, Richard J. Smith, Rico Sneller, Tan Chee Lay and Alan Trist. Swindon: Shearsman Books.