The Companion to Richard Berengarten

This book which accompanies the volumes published in the authors Selected Writings series guides readers through the many-faceted poetic output of Richard Berengarten (formerly Burns). Berengarten has been a crucial presence in contemporary poetry for over forty years - not only as poet but also as translator critic and driving force behind the legendary Cambridge Poetry Festival - and his poetry has been translated into more than ninety languages. With thirty-four contributors from over a dozen nationalities the book is a testimony to the recognition of his poetry by fellow writers and critics across cultural linguistic and geographical boundaries and frontiers. The range of poetic canons to which Berengartens oeuvre responds enables him to put down multiple roots in a number of literary traditions and this is reflected in the books diversity. It sets out not only to be of use to readers and scholars already acquainted with Berengartens poetry but as a guide to those who are encountering his work for the first time.It is divided into three main sections the first of which approaches the work thematically and the second chronologically while the third focuses on his Balkan trilogy (The Blue Butterfly In A Time Of Drought and Under Balkan Light). The book also contains an appendix of essays on Berengartens ancillary roles as literary activist EFL teacher/entrepreneur and teacher of poetry to children as well as a detailed bibliography.