ROME- Poet, essayist, and Italian-English translator Simon West will read a selection of his work at the Keats-Shelley House this Friday at 4pm.

West was born Melbourne, Austrialia in 1974 and went on to complete his Phd at the University of Melbourne in 2004 where was awarded the Chancellor’s Prize in 2004. His thesis examined the medieval Italian poet Guido Cavalcanti and involved producing a series of annotated verse translations in English. A discussion of the translation of poetry was an important part of the work, as was an analysis of the English versions of Ezra Pound and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and identifying strategies and difficulties involved in the process of moving between the medieval Italian of Cavalcanti and nineteenth and twentieth-century English.  

He is the author of First Names from  2006 which was his first collection of poetry and won the William Baylebridge Memorial Prize. In 2009 he has also published Selected Poetry of Guido Cavalcanti and most recently The Yellow Gum’s Conversion, last year.

He is currently a writer-in-residence at the BR Whiting Library in Rome.

Refreshments are to follow the reading. The museum's standard entrance fee applies and the event is
open to everyone. To reserve seats email info@keats-shelley-house.org  or call 06 678 4235.