Yann Lovelock BEM (born 11 February 1939) is an English writer and translator who later became a Buddhist interfaith worker.
Yann Lovelock was born in Birmingham on 11 February 1939. His career as a poet, editor and reviewer began while he was studying at St Edmund Hall, Oxford. [1] For the most part his writing appeared from small presses and in little magazines. He was associated in particular with Peter Mortimer's Iron, Nick Toczek's The Little Word Machine, and Ian Robinson's Oasis, all of which he helped edit. [2] In Europe he served as vice-chair of Freundkreis Poesie Europe (Frankfurt am Main, 1977–97) and was English editor of its literary annual. [3] As a critic and translator, his main specialisation was in the poetry of the Low Countries and he was commissioned to write a study of modern Dutch poetry in translation, The Line Forward (1984). Among Dutch-language poets he helped edit and translate have been Guido Gezelle, Anton van Wilderode, Hugo Claus, Willem Roggeman, Stefaan van den Bremt and H.C. ten Berge. His allied interest was in modernist poetry in Belgian Romance dialects, of which he edited and translated two anthologies, The Colour of the Weather (1980) and In the Pupil's Mirror (1997). In 1995 he was elected a corresponding member of the Belgian "dialect academy", La Société de Langue et de Littérature Wallonnes. [4] During the 1970s he was commissioned by UNESCO to co-translate several works from Eastern languages. Later translations have included selections from Marianne Larsen (Denmark), Gilles Cyr (Quebec) and Serge Pey (France).
The other side of Lovelock's life centred on his involvement with Buddhism. Between 1982 and 2005 he was responsible for the educational outreach and interfaith work of Birmingham Buddhist Vihara; afterwards he served as Secretary to Birmingham Maha Vihara. [5] With Ajahn Khemadhammo, he co-founded the Buddhist Prison Chaplaincy Organisation in 1984 and served as its Co-ordinator until 1995. [6] Since 2002 his national involvement in multi-faith activities has included serving on the executives of the National Association of Standing Advisory Councils on Religious Education and of The Inter Faith Network; as interfaith co-ordinator for the Network of Buddhist Organisations; and as Buddhist vice-chair of the Council of Dharmic Faiths. At regional level he was vice-chair of the West Midlands Faiths Forum and served as alternate faith member on the West Midlands Regional Assembly. In 2012 he was awarded the British Empire Medal for his services to community cohesion and inter-faith relations in the West Midlands. [7] Between 2012-2014, Lovelock was part of the editorial team of The Encyclopedia of Buddhist Arts at the Fo Guang Shan main monastery in Taiwan. There he had special responsibility for the four volumes devoted to sculpture, [8] and in April 2019 took part in the encyclopedia's academic presentation during the "Expressions of the Dharma" conference at Hsi Lai Temple, Los Angeles. [9]
César Abraham Vallejo Mendoza was a Peruvian poet, writer, playwright, and journalist. Although he published only two books of poetry during his lifetime, he is considered one of the great poetic innovators of the 20th century in any language. He was always a step ahead of literary currents, and each of his books was distinct from the others, and, in its own sense, revolutionary. Thomas Merton called him "the greatest universal poet since Dante". The late British poet, critic and biographer Martin Seymour-Smith, a leading authority on world literature, called Vallejo "the greatest twentieth-century poet in any language." He was a member of the intellectual community called North Group formed in the Peruvian north coastal city of Trujillo.
Paul Celan, born Paul Antschel, was a Romanian-born French poet, Holocaust survivor, and literary translator. Due to his many radical poetic and linguistic innovations, Celan regarded as one of the most important figures in German-language literature of the post-World War II era and a poet whose verse has an immortal place in the literary pantheon. His poetry is characterized by a complicated and cryptic style that deviates from poetic conventions.
Dennis Philip Edward Lingwood, known more commonly as Sangharakshita, was a British spiritual teacher and writer. In 1967, he founded the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order (FWBO), which was renamed the Triratna Buddhist Community in 2010.
Umberto Saba was an Italian poet and novelist, born Umberto Poli in the cosmopolitan Mediterranean port of Trieste when it was the fourth largest city of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Poli assumed the pen name "Saba" in 1910, and his name was officially changed to Umberto Saba in 1928. From 1919 he was the proprietor of an antiquarian bookshop in Trieste. He suffered from depression for all of his adult life.
Hans Carl Artmann, also known as Ib Hansen, was an Austrian poet and writer, most popular for his early poems written in Viennese, which however, never after were to be the focus of his oeuvre.
Vihāra generally refers to a Buddhist monastery for Buddhist renunciates, mostly in the Indian subcontinent. The concept is ancient and in early Sanskrit and Pali texts, it meant any arrangement of space or facilities for dwellings. The term evolved into an architectural concept wherein it refers to living quarters for monks with an open shared space or courtyard, particularly in Buddhism. The term is also found in Ajivika, Hindu and Jain monastic literature, usually referring to temporary refuge for wandering monks or nuns during the annual Indian monsoons. In modern Jainism, the monks continue to wander from town to town except during the rainy season (chaturmasya), and the term "vihara" refers to their wanderings.
Lucien Stryk was an American poet, translator of Buddhist literature and Zen poetry, and former English professor at Northern Illinois University (NIU).
Peter John Dale is a British poet and translator particularly noted for his skilful but unobtrusive use of poetic form.
Louis Remacle was a linguistics professor at the University of Liège who contributed in particular to the recognition and study of the Walloon language. He also published a number of innovative collections of poetry in his local dialect.
Edward Joseph Lister Lowbury was a pioneering and innovative English medical bacteriologist and pathologist, and also a published poet.
Buddhist poetry is a genre of literature that forms a part of Buddhist discourse.
Adria Bernardi is an American novelist and translator.
The Keepsake Press was a private press founded by English writer Roy Lewis. The press published more than 100 books and chapbooks using letterpress techniques. It ceased to operate in 1996 when Lewis died. Its archive is now housed at Reading University.
Ian Robinson was an English writer and artist and editor of Oasis Books.
Vidyakara was a Buddhist scholar and poetry anthologist, noted for the Sanskrit poetry compilation Subhashitaratnakosha, which has been considered the "most celebrated" anthology of Sanskrit verse. Most of the verses, where authorship is noted, range over the two centuries prior to compilation; hence it may be thought of as a compilation of "modern verse" for the period.
Nick Toczek is a British writer and performer working variously as poet, journalist, magician, vocalist, lyricist and radio broadcaster. He was raised in Bradford and then took a degree in Industrial Metallurgy at Birmingham University (1968–71) where he began reading and publishing his poetry. Staying on in Moseley, Birmingham, until 1977, he founded his poetry magazine The Little Word Machine, had several books and pamphlets published by small presses, co-founded Moseley Community Arts Festival, and toured with his music and poetry troupe, The Stereo Graffiti Show. Moving back to Bradford in 1977, he co-founded the seminal music fanzine The Wool City Rocker and formed the band Ulterior Motives, in which he was lyricist and lead vocalist. Continuing to tour as a poet and to publish his writings, he also recorded songs with a variety of bands. During the early 1980s, he ran a series of weekly punk and indie gigs. Throughout the late '80s and early '90s, he ran weekly alternative cabaret clubs, usually co-organising these with fellow performer Wild Willi Beckett. Since the mid-'90s, his collections of children's poetry have seen him become a best-selling children's writer. Also, since 1997, he has been regularly collaborating with the composer Malcolm Singer, starting with their Dragons Cantata. By 2011, Toczek had worked as a visiting writer in thousands of schools, visiting dozens of countries worldwide in the course of this work. He is also a professional close-up magician, a skilled puppeteer, an authority on far-right neo-Nazi and racist groups, a prolific print journalist and an experienced broadcaster.
Mark Terrill is a well-traveled American poet, translator, and prose writer who has resided in Northern Germany since the mid-1980s.
Sayadaw U Rewata Dhamma was a prominent Theravada Buddhist monk and noted Abhidhamma scholar from Myanmar (Burma). After pursuing an academic career in India for most of two decades, he accepted an invitation to head a Buddhist centre in Birmingham UK, and over the next three decades gained an international reputation as a teacher of meditation and an advocate of peace and reconciliation.
Dhamma Talaka Peace Pagoda was opened in Birmingham, UK in 1998 and is the only such building in traditional Burmese style in the Western hemisphere. On its grounds there are now a monastery and the teaching hall of a planned Buddhist Academy.
Mabel Ferrett (1917-2011) was a British poet, publisher, literary editor and local historian. She was one of the founders of the long-established Pennine Poets writing group. She established the Fighting Cock Press to publish work by northern authors.
Poems online: