Cambridge Poetry Festival

The Cambridge Poetry Festival, founded by Richard Berengarten (also known as Richard Burns), was an international biennale for poetry held in Cambridge, England, between 1975–1985.[1]

The festival was founded in an attempt to combine as many aspects as possible of this form of art.[2] Thus Michael Hamburger could, for example, recite his English interpretations of Paul Celan's poetry in the presence of Gisèle Lestrange and a surprisingly large audience at an art gallery bestowed on her engravings.[3][4] The last biennale in 1985 included a number of events to mark Ezra Pound's centenary, including the exhibition Pound's Artists: Ezra Pound and the Visual Arts in London, Paris and Italy at Kettle's Yard (later also shown at the Tate Gallery)[5] and was accompanied by a special issue of the magazine PN Review.[6]

The festival will be revived for its 50th anniversary in June 2025.

Literature

• Richard Berengarten, "The Cambridge Poetry Festival: 35 years after", Cambridge Literary Review, I/1 (Michaelmas, 2009)
• Martin Booth: British poetry 1964 to 1984: driving through the barricades (Routledge, 1985).
• Rolf Dieter Brinkmann: The Last One: Readings / Autorenlesungen, Cambridge Poetry Festival 1975 [Audio-book] [CD], 59 min. (Intermedium Records, 2005)

References

1. Blair-Underwood, Alison (2012). "Open account - A memoir: the Cambridge Poetry Festival". Blackbox Manifold, Issue 9: Peter Robinson at Sixty. Blackbox Manifold. Retrieved 7 January 2013.
2. Richard Berengarten, 'The Cambridge Poetry Festival 1975' Archived 2012-05-25 at archive.today .
3. John Pilling, Review: The Cambridge Poetry Festival 1979 Archived 2010-06-10 at the Wayback Machine, Florida State University, USA.
4. For another reminiscence of the 1979 festival, see Waldrop, Rosmarie (2002). Lavish Absence: Recalling and Rereading Edmond Jabès. Wesleyan University Press. p. 98. ISBN 0-8195-6580-6.
5. Richard Humphreys (editor), Pound's Artists: Ezra Pound and the Visual Arts in London, Paris and Italy, London (Tate Gallery), June 1985, ISBN 0-946590-29-X
6. PN Review 46 November - December 1985, http://www.pnreview.co.uk/cgi-bin/scribe?toc=2;volume=12

External links

• Elizabeth Thomas and Richard Burns, 'Cambridge Poetry Festival', The New York Review of Books, October 3 1974
• Rat Palace by Tom Pickard, 19 April 1977

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