Robin Robertson (born in 1955) is a Scottish poet.

Biography

Robertson was brought up on the north-east coast of Scotland, but has spent most of his professional life in London. After working as an editor at Penguin Books and Secker and Warburg, he became poetry and fiction editor at

Jonathan Cape Jonathan Cape is a London publishing firm founded in 1921 by Herbert Jonathan Cape, who was head of the firm until his death in 1960. Cape and his business partner Wren Howard set up the publishing house in 1921. They established a reputation ...

. Robertson's poetry appears regularly in the ''

London Review of Books The ''London Review of Books'' (''LRB'') is a British literary magazine published twice monthly that features articles and essays on fiction and non-fiction subjects, which are usually structured as book reviews. History The ''London Review of ...

'' and '' The New York Review of Books'', and is represented in many anthologies. In 2004, he edited ''Mortification: Writers' Stories of Their Public Shame'', which collects seventy commissioned pieces by international authors. In 2006 he published ''The Deleted World'', new versions of the Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer, and in 2008 a new translation of '' Medea'', which has been dramatised for stage and radio. Robertson was a trustee of the Griffin Trust for Excellence in Poetry (and is now a trustee emeritus).

Awards

Robertson's first volume of poetry, ''A Painted Field'', won the 1997 Forward Prize for Best First Collection and the Scottish First Book of the Year Award. ''Slow Air'' followed in 2002, and his third book, ''Swithering'', was published in 2006, winning the Forward Prize for Best Collection. In 2004, Robertson received the

E. M. Forster Award The E. M. Forster Award is a $20,000 award given annually to an Irish or British writer to fund a period of travel in the United States. The award, named after the English novelist E. M. Forster, is administered by the American Academy of Arts and L ...

from The American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2009 he was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, th ...

He completed the set of Forward Prizes in 2009 when "At Roane Head" won the award for Best Single Poem. This poem is included in his fourth collection, ''The Wrecking Light'' (2010), a volume shortlisted for the 2010 Forward Prize, the Costa Poetry Award and the T.S. Eliot Prize. In 2013 he was honorably awarded the international, German Petrarca-Preis, sharing it with Adonis. In 2013, his book ''Hill of Doors'' was shortlisted for the

2013 Costa Book Awards The Costa Book Awards were a set of annual literary awards recognising English-language books by writers based in UK and Ireland. Originally named the Whitbread Book Awards from 1971 to 2005 after its first sponsor, the Whitbread company, then ...

(Poetry). His narrative poem, ''

The Long Take ''The Long Take, or A Way to Lose More Slowly'', known simply as The Long Take, is a novel in narrative poetry form with Film noir, noir style by Scottish poet Robin Robertson. It was published in 2018 by Picador (imprint), Picador. The story-li ...

'', won the Goldsmiths Prize for innovative fiction. In 2019 it won him the 10th Walter Scott Prize, making him the first Scot and first poet to win the award. It was shortlisted for the 2018

Man Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. ...

. In 2019 he was a contributor to ''A New Divan: A Lyrical Dialogue Between East and West (''Gingko Library).

Poetry collections

* ''A Painted Field'' Picador, 1997. ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1999, * ''Slow Air'', Harcourt, 2002. *(editor) * * Tomas Tranströmer, ''The Deleted World'' Enitharmon Press, 2006. * Euripides, ''Medea'', Random House, 2008. * * ''Hill of Doors'', Picador, 2013. * ''Sailing the Forest: Selected Poems'', Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014. * Euripides, ''Bacchae'', Harper Collins, 2014. * ''

'', Picador, 2018. * '' Grimoire'', Picador, 2020.

References

External links

*
"A Celtic Mage’s Muses"
''Open Letters Monthly'', Marc Vincenz
Griffin Poetry Prize biography

Poetry Archive profile, with poems and audio recordings

Contemporary Writers profile.

Profile at the Poetry Foundation

Robertson poems at Poets.org

" ''The Wrecking Light'' by Robin Robertson", Review of the collection ''Guardian'' 20 February 2010
{{DEFAULTSORT:Robertson, Robin Living people Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature 1955 births Translators of Ancient Greek texts Walter Scott Prize winners Goldsmiths Prize winners