Jamie McKendrick (born 27 October 1955) is a British poet and translator.

Early life and education

McKendrick was born in

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

, 27 October 1955, and educated at the Quaker school, Bootham, York, and

Liverpool College Liverpool College is a coeducational day and boarding school in Mossley Hill, Liverpool, England. It was one of the thirteen founding members of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference, Headmasters' Conference. History Liverpool Coll ...

. He studied English Literature at the

University of Nottingham The University of Nottingham is a public research university in Nottingham, England. It was founded as University College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted a royal charter in 1948. Nottingham's main campus (University Park Campus, Nottingh ...

and graduated in 1975 at the age of 20. Between 1985 and 1987, he worked in a team of language teachers at the

University of Salerno The University of Salerno () (in acronym UNISA) is a university located in Fisciano and in Baronissi, Italy. Its main campus is located in Fisciano while the Faculty of Medicine is located in Baronissi. It is organized in ten faculties. H ...

. He has occasionally tutored at

Hertford College, Oxford Hertford College ( ), previously known as Magdalen Hall, is a colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It is located on Catte Street in the centre of Oxford, directly opposite the main ga ...

, the

University of Gothenburg The University of Gothenburg () is a List of universities in Sweden, university in Sweden's second largest city, Gothenburg. Founded in 1891, the university is the third-oldest of the current List of universities in Sweden#Public universities, S ...

, Jan Masaryk University in Brno, the University of Nottingham and

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

. He teaches part-time for the Oxford programmes of

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

and

Sarah Lawrence Sarah (born Sarai) is a Patriarchs (Bible)#Matriarchs, biblical matriarch, prophet, and major figure in Abrahamic religions. While different Abrahamic faiths portray her differently, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all depict her character simil ...

and offers a translation workshop for the Creative Writing MSt. also at Oxford.

Poetry

McKendrick has published seven collections of poetry and two ''Selected Poems''. He is also the editor of ''The Faber Book of 20th-Century Italian Poems'' (2004).

Criticism

McKendrick has written reviews and essays on literature and art for numerous newspapers and magazines, including the TLS, the LRB,

Independent on Sunday ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publishe ...

, The Atheaneum Review and

Modern Painters Modern may refer to: History *Modern history ** Early Modern period ** Late Modern period *** 18th century *** 19th century *** 20th century ** Contemporary history * Moderns, a faction of Freemasonry that existed in the 18th century Philosophy ...

. His essays have been published in several books including: ''Elizabeth Bishop: Poet of the Periphery''; ''Writers on Art''; ''Literary Activism;'' he has also written catalogue essays for exhibitions by Arturo Di Stefano and Donald Wilkinson, and an introduction to Tom Lubbock's ''English Graphic'' ( Francis Lincoln, 2012). A collection of his writings on art, poetry and translation, ''The Foreign Connection'', was published by Legenda, 2020,

Translations

McKendrick has translated six books of fiction by the Italian novelist

Giorgio Bassani Giorgio Bassani (Bologna, 4 March 1916 – Rome, 13 April 2000) was an Italians, Italian novelist, poet, essayist, editor, and international intellectual. Biography Bassani was born in Bologna into a prosperous Jewish family of Ferrara, where h ...

, including '' The Garden of the Finzi-Continis'', published as individual volumes by

Penguin Penguins are a group of aquatic flightless birds from the family Spheniscidae () of the order Sphenisciformes (). They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere. Only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is equatorial, with a sm ...

and, for the first time in English, in a collected edition by Penguin and by Norton in the US.

Awards

McKendrick was named as one of the

Poetry Society The Poetry Society is a membership organisation, open to all, whose stated aim is "to promote the study, use and enjoyment of poetry". The society was founded in London in February 1909 as the Poetry Recital Society, becoming the Poetry Society ...

's 'New Generation' poets in the 1990s, with the Society selecting his 1997 collection ''Marble Fly'' as a Poetry Society Book Choice. McKendrick's collections was shortlisted for the 1997 and 2003 T. S. Eliot Prize, the 2003 Whitbread Poetry Award, and the 2007 Forward Poetry Prize. His translations of Giorgio Bassani were shortlisted for the Oxford-Weidenfeld prize and for the John Florio award. Awards received include: * 2020 Michael Marks Illustration Award (for ''The Years'') * 2020 Michael Marks Poetry Pamphlet Award (for ''The Years'') hortlisted* 2019 Cholmondeley Award * 2016 John Florio Italian Translation Award for Antonella Anedda's ''Archipelago'' * 2014 Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature * 2013 Hawthornden Prize for ''Out There'' * 2010 John Florio Italian Translation Award for Valerio Magrelli ''The Embrace'' * 2010

Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize The Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize is an annual literary prize for any book-length translation into English from any other living European language. The first prize was awarded in 1999. The prize is funded by and named in honour of Lord Wei ...

for Valerio Magrelli's ''The Embrace'' * 2005 Cavaliere OSSI (Ordine della Stella della Solidarietà Italiana) * 2003

Society of Authors The Society of Authors (SoA) is a United Kingdom trade union for professional writers, illustrators and literary translators, founded in 1884 to protect the rights and further the interests of authors. Membership of the society is open to "anyon ...

Travel Award *1997 Forward Prize for Best Collection for ''The Marble Fly'' * 1994 Southern Arts Literature Award (for ''The Kiosk on the Brink'') * 1991

Arts Council An arts council is a government or private non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the arts; mainly by funding local artists, awarding prizes, and organizing arts events. They often operate at arms-length from the government to prevent pol ...

Writers' Award * 1984

Eric Gregory Award The Eric Gregory Award is a literary award given annually by the Society of Authors for a collection by United Kingdom poets under the age of 30. The award was founded in 1960 by Dr. Eric Gregory to support and encourage young poets. Past winne ...

Selected bibliography

Poetry collections

* ''The Sirocco Room'' (Oxford University Press, 1991) * ''The Kiosk on the Brink'' (Oxford University Press, 1993) * ''The Marble Fly'' (Oxford University Press, 1997) * ''Sky Nails: Poems 1979–1997'' (Faber and Faber, 2000) * ''Ink Stone'' (Faber and Faber, 2003) * ''Crocodiles and Obelisks'' (Faber and Faber, 2007) * ''Out There'' (Faber and Faber, 2012) * ''The Hunters'' – pamphlet with French and Italian translations (Incline Press, 2015) * ''Selected Poems'' (Faber and Faber, 2016) * ''Repairwork'' – pamphlet (Clutag Press, 5 poems series, 2017) * ''Anomaly'' (Faber and Faber, 2018) * ''The Years'' – pamphlet illustrated by the author (Arc Publications, 2020)

Translations

: ''The Garden of the Finzi-Continis'' (Penguin, 2007, republished Folio, 2014) * Valerio Magrelli: The Embrace: Selected Poems (Faber and Faber, 2009, republished in a bilingual edition as ''Vanishing Points'' by Farrar Straus Giroux, 2011) *

Pier Paolo Pasolini Pier Paolo Pasolini (; 5 March 1922 – 2 November 1975) was an Italian poet, film director, writer, actor and playwright. He is considered one of the defining public intellectuals in 20th-century Italian history, influential both as an artist ...

: ''Fabrication'', a translation of the verse play ''Affabulazione'', (Oberon, 2010). Performed at The Printhouse, London in 2010, directed by

Lucy Bailey Lucy Bailey is a prolific British theatre director, known for productions such as ''Baby Doll'' at Britain's Royal National Theatre, National Theatre and a notorious ''Titus Andronicus'', The Guardian review said, 'There is no getting away from o ...

. *

David Huerta David Huerta (8 October 1949 – 3 October 2022) was a Mexican poet and the son of well-known poet Efraín Huerta. His wife was the writer Verónica Murguía. Biography He was born in Mexico City, the son of the poets Efraín Huerta and Mire ...

: ''Poemas/Poems'' (

Poetry Translation Centre The Poetry Translation Centre (PTC) is an organization dedicated to translating poetry from Africa, Asia and Latin America. It is a company limited by guarantee and a registered charity. It was founded by the British poet Sarah Maguire in 2004. I ...

pamphlet, 2010) * Giorgio Bassani: ''The Gold-Rimmed Spectacles'' (Penguin, 2012) * Giorgio Bassani: ''The Smell of Hay'' (Penguin, 2014) * Antonella Anedda: ''Archipelago'' (Bloodaxe, 2016) * Giorgio Bassani: ''Within the Walls'' (Penguin, 2016) * Giorgio Bassani: ''Behind the Door'' (Penguin, 2017) * Giorgio Bassani: ''The Heron'' (2018) * Giorgio Bassani: The Novel of Ferrara (Penguin, 2018, Norton, 2018)

Work translated

McKendrick's poems have appreared in translation in France, Italy, Germany, in Sweden, Holland, Turkey, Iran, Spain, and Argentina. Other translations have been published as books in Holland, Italy, Sweden and Spain: * ''Een versteende dierentuin: Gedichten'' translated by Ko Kooman (Wagner & Van Santen, Sliedrecht, 2000) * ''Chiodi di cielo'', translated by L. Guerneri and A. Anedda (Donzelli, Rome, 2003) * ''En förlorad stad'', translated by Lars-Håkan Svennson and Lasse Söderberg (Bokförlaget Faethon, Stockholm, 2020) * ''Un perro verde'', translated by Nieves García Prados (Valparaíso, Granada, 2021)

References

External links

Podcast Interview with Jamie McKendrick by André Naffis-Sahely
*
Poetry Archive - Jamie McKendrick

British Council Website - Contemporary Writers

Isis Magazine - Jamie McKendrick.''Crocodiles and Obelisks''.'

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{{DEFAULTSORT:McKendrick, Jamie Living people 1955 births Alumni of the University of Nottingham British male poets English–Italian translators Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature People educated at Liverpool College Poets from Liverpool Writers from Liverpool