Richard Berengarten (formerly known as Burns) was born in London in 1943, into a family of musicians. He has lived in Italy, Greece, the USA and Yugoslavia. His perspectives as a poet combine English, French, Mediterranean, Jewish, Slavic, American and Oriental influences. He deals equally with historical and political material, with inner worlds, and with relationships and everyday life. In the 1970s, he founded and ran the (now almost legendary) international Cambridge Poetry Festival. His work has been translated into 18 languages. In 2017, he was awarded the Xu Zhimo Silver Willow Award, for his 2016 book, Changing.