Mario Petrucci Explained
Mario Petrucci |
Birth Name: | Mario Petrucci |
Birth Place: | Lambeth, London, UK |
Occupation: | Poet, physicist, ecologist |
Nationality: | British / Italian |
Citizenship: | United Kingdom |
Genre: | Poetry, Science, Education |
Mario Petrucci (born 1958) is a British-Italian poet, literary translator, educator and broadcaster. He was born in Lambeth, London and trained as a physicist at Selwyn College in the University of Cambridge, later completing a PhD in vacuum crystal growth at University College London. He is also an ecologist, having a BA in Environmental Science from Middlesex University.[1] Breaking with his early career in science, Petrucci increasingly focussed on his literary projects, becoming the first poet to be resident at the Imperial War Museum[2] and with BBC Radio 3.[3] [4] [5] His broadcasting experience is extensive, including BBC radio’s Kaleidoscope, London Nights, Sunday Feature, Night Waves, The Verb and the BBC World Service, as well as BBC TV.[6]
Petrucci's poetry debut, Shrapnel and Sheets (1996), won a Poetry Book Society Recommendation.[7] Ensuing literary awards include the Irish Times Perpetual Trophy, the Daily Telegraph/ Arvon International Poetry Prize, the London Writers Competition (a record four wins), the Sheffield Thursday Prize (twice), the Bridport Poetry Prize, and the Silver Wyvern Award. Altogether, between 1991 and 2005, Petrucci won a total of 22 national and international open poetry competitions.[8] Petrucci's poetry has also appeared in such outlets as The Spectator and The Independent,[9] and has been noted in the Daily Mail, The Daily Telegraph and The Guardian, with his diverse collections drawing inspiration situationally from key cultural sites, or exploring his core themes of love/loss, the tragedies of warfare, and science in the natural world.
A prolific poet, Petrucci's style and forms have constantly evolved. His early output might be characterised as a shifting eclectic mix of spiritual/devotional, open-mic/humour/performance-oriented, politically-conscious/satirical, ecopoetic/scientific, site-specific, war-related and confessional work (the latter often centred on relationships or his Italian heritage and family), which later condensed into extensive explorations of intensely felt love/loss and a more systematically experimental neo-modernist drive (with eco-aware, metaphysical and 'concrete' leanings), punctuated by major public commissions and an increasing engagement with watershed authors from other cultures and epochs. This intricate aesthetic journey culminated in the vast i tulips sequence, his key experimental undertaking consisting of 1111 poems (with a 1111-line coda in 11 parts) described by the Poetry Book Society as an "ambitious landmark body of work”.[10] Endorsed by Roy Fisher and Bill Berkson, the project combined rich imagery with a freshly-invented undulating form, proceeding through hundreds of variations, to generate "an energetic fusion of American and British modernism". Alongside this, Petrucci has been strongly occupied with literary translation: 2018 brought his English versions of the Persian mystic poet Hafez via Bloodaxe Books, and in 2022 he was invited by the Society of Authors to judge the John Florio Prize for Italian translation.[11] He has also published versions of Catullus, Sappho, Rumi, Saadi and the Nobel-winning Eugenio Montale.
Petrucci's poems, short stories, articles and essays often investigate cross-disciplinary concerns (creativity, politics, science, the environment),[12] [13] for instance the role of eco-art in dissolving society's resistance to pro-environmental change. He has also been much involved in the educational sector,[14] [15] [16] in creative writing and literary mentoring, melding scientific and ecological awareness with creative writing praxis.[17] [18] [19] Petrucci was instrumental in a number of influential London-based literary initiatives, including the experimental collaborative 'co-vocal' poetry performance troupe ShadoWork, the Arts Council/ London Arts funded organisation writers inc. which ran prominent workshops and events, and the poetry magazine The Bound Spiral. He has engaged with a range of cultural organisations, including the Royal Festival Hall, the Charles Dickens Museum, Southwell Workhouse, the Royal College of Surgeons of England, the European Space Agency, the London School of Economics, the Wellcome Foundation, and the Natural History Museum, London; he was also Royal Literary Fund Fellow on four occasions, at Oxford Brookes University, University of Westminster, Brunel University London, and the City and Guilds of London Art School.[12]
One of Petrucci's several critical-theoretical innovations in poetry is his nesting of concrete poetry within a larger concept he terms Spatial Form.[a][20] This goes far beyond the overt spatial signals generated by a poem’s concrete shape or its chosen form and layout: Spatial Form incorporates all aspects of the poem's visual gestalt as physically manifested on the page, including such subtleties as typeface or the visual textures of repeated letters.[21] [22] Petrucci also coined the critical terms 'Poeclectics'[23] [24] and 'sonic stitching',[25] and is first proponent of the new prose sub-genre 'Eco-sci-fi Flash Fiction'.[26]
Petrucci's poetry has been deployed in a number of films. Heavy Water: a film for Chernobyl and Half Life: a Journey to Chernobyl were two sibling features (by Seventh Art Productions)[27] built around his award-winning poetry sequence on the Chernobyl disaster.[28] These films have garnered awards such as the Cinequest, as well as screenings on mainstream television and at major cultural venues such as Tate Modern (in 2007).
2012 saw Petrucci shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award[29] [30] with a monumental poetry soundscape (among the largest ever created) entitled Tales from the Bridge.[31] [32] [33] [34] [35] Commissioned by the Mayor of London, this installation spanned the Thames as part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad. Composed as a complex overlapping hybrid prose poem, and performed using subtle sonic textures with multiple interleaving voices, Tales from the Bridge was "assembled from literary forms such as short poems, atmospheric descriptions, local anecdotes, facts and figures".[36] Collaborators for the project included Martyn Ware (The Human League) and Eric Whitacre, whose music was used. The soundscape played for two months along the entire length of the Millennium Bridge and was experienced by an estimated 4 million people.[37]
Books and pamphlets
- Shrapnel and Sheets (Headland, 1996) (Poetry Book Society Recommendation).
- Bosco (Hearing Eye: pamphlet 1999; book 2001) & .
- Lepidoptera (Kite Modern Poetry Series, 88 & 96; 1999, 2001) & .
- The Stamina of Sheep (the Havering Poems) (Havering London Borough Council / Bound Spiral Press, 2002) .
- The Havering Poetry Study Pack (Havering London Borough Council / Bound Spiral Press, 2002) .
- High Zest and the Doggerel March (Wilfred Owen – Genius or Sugar-stick?) (Bound Spiral Press, 2002)
- Heavy Water: a poem for Chernobyl (Enitharmon Press, 2004) .
- Half Life (Poems for Chernobyl) (Heaventree Press, 2004) .
- Fearnought (Poems for Southwell Workhouse) (The National Trust, 2006) or .
- Catullus (Perdika Press, 2006) (second re-print 2007,).
- Flowers of Sulphur (Enitharmon Press, 2007) .
- somewhere is january (Perdika Press, 2007) .
- Sappho (Perdika Press, 2008) .
- i tulips (Enitharmon Press, 2010) .
- Nights * Sifnos * Hands (Flarestack Poets,[38] 2010) .
- the waltz in my blood (Waterloo Press,[39] 2011) .
- the inward garden (St Edmund’s College, 2013) [limited edition] .
- anima (Nine Arches Press,[40] 2013) .
- crib (Enitharmon Press, 2014) .
- 1111 (Perdika Press, 2014) .
- Xenia (Arc Publications, 2016) (Translation of Xenia by Eugenio Montale).
- Beloved: 81 poems from Hafez (Bloodaxe Books, 2018) (translation of The Divan by Persian mystic poet Hafez).
- Isha Upanishad (Guillemot Press, 2019) (a modern English vers libre version of the ancient sacred Hindu text, the Isha Upanishad).
- afterlove (Cinnamon Press, 2020) .
- Dawn Ravens (23 poems from Saadi and Rumi) (Lapwing Publications, 2022) .
- Moonbird : love poems (Fair Acre Press, 2023) .
Films
- Heavy Water: a film for Chernobyl (with Phil Grabsky & David Bickerstaff) Seventh Art Productions, 2006.[41] [42]
- Half Life: a journey to Chernobyl (with Phil Grabsky & David Bickerstaff) Seventh Art Productions, 2006.
- Amazonia (with Lucy + Jorge Orta), commissioned by the Natural History Museum, 2010.[43]
Awards
- 1993 Winner, London Writers Competition
- 1995 Edith Kitt Memorial Award
- 1996 Poetry Book Society Recommendation
- 1996 Edith Kitt Memorial Award
- 1997 Winner, Sheffield Thursday Prize
- 1997 Winner, inaugural Irish Times Perpetual Trophy
- 1998 New London Writers Award (London Arts)
- 1998 Winner, London Writers Competition
- 1998 Winner, Sheffield Thursday Prize
- 1999 Bridport Poetry Prize
- 2002 Daily Telegraph / Arvon International Poetry Prize
- 2002 Arts Council England Writers' Award
- 2003 Essex Book Awards Best Fiction Prize 2000–2002
- 2003 Silver Wyvern Award
- 2004 Winner, London Writers Competition
- 2004 National Poetry Competition: third prize cum laude
- 2005/2006 Arts Council England Grants for the Arts: Science in Poetry
- 2005 Winner, London Writers Competition
- 2007 Cinequest Film Festival Award, Best Short Documentary (Half Life: a Journey to Chernobyl)
- 2009/10 Arts Council England Grants for the Arts: i tulips
- 2012 Shortlisted for The Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry: Tales from the Bridge
- 2016 Winner, PEN Translates Award[44]
- 2018 Shortlisted: John Florio Prize for Italian Translation (with Xenia by Eugenio Montale)[45]
Notes
[a] - Petrucci's formulation of Spatial form is not to be confused with Joseph Frank's unrelated 1945 term, dealing primarily with the abstract patterning of internal references and narratives implemented by an author across a work in order to create a unitary structure of meaning.[46]
External links
Notes and References
- Web site: Poetry International (archival page). https://web.archive.org/web/20220726160601/https://www.poetryinternational.com/en/poets-poems/poets/poet/102-17305_Petrucci . 26 July 2022 .
- Web site: Poetry by the Imperial War Museum Poet-in-Residence, Mario Petrucci, 1999. Imperial War Museum. 1 December 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20181021005606/https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1030008396. 21 October 2018. live.
- Web site: BBC – Listen Up! – New Music and Writing. BBC. 1 December 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20231117000030/https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/listenup/newwriting.shtml. 17 November 2023. live.
- Web site: BBC Radio 3 (Petrucci). 1 December 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230801145804/https://www.abctales.com/forum/fri-2009-05-15-1610/mario-petrucci-michelangelo-radio-3-pm. 1 August 2023. live.
- Web site: Comma Press biography (archived page). https://web.archive.org/web/20170430144036/https://commapress.co.uk/authors/mario-petrucci . 30 April 2017 .
- Web site: Petrucci biography. literature.britishcouncil.org. 1 December 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20220726160157/https://literature.britishcouncil.org/writer/mario-petrucci. 26 July 2022. live.
- Web site: Poetry Society (Petrucci biography). 1 December 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230801145709/https://poems.poetrysociety.org.uk/poets/mario-petrucci/. 1 August 2023. live.
- Web site: Author's official website (Biography page). 26 November 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20231201205933/http://www.mariopetrucci.com/bio.htm. 1 December 2023. live.
- Web site: Petrucci biography in 'Poetic Voices' (archived source). 24 October 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20201001035739/https://poeticvoices.live/portfolio/petrucci-mario/ . 1 October 2020.
- Poetry Book Society Bulletin . Spring 2010 . 224 . (reviews section). London.
- Web site: John Florio Prize 2022. www2.societyofauthors.org/. 8 August 2024. https://web.archive.org/web/20230530184458/https://www2.societyofauthors.org/prizes/translation-prizes/italian-john-florio-prize/. 30 May 2023. live.
- Web site: Royal Literary Fund Fellow. rlf.org.uk. 1 December 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20220826175736/https://www.rlf.org.uk/fellowships/mario-petrucci/. 26 August 2022. live.
- Web site: Visualizations. yumpu.com.
- Web site: Study Skills Project. rlf.org.uk. 1 December 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20111122163543/http://www.rlf.org.uk/fellowshipscheme/writing/mission_possible.cfm. 22 November 2011. dead.
- Web site: Poetry School. poetryschool.com. 21 October 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230406095507/https://poetryschool.com/our-tutors/. 6 April 2023. live.
- Web site: Poetry Class national initiative [sample]]. poetryclass.poetrysociety.org.uk. 21 October 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20210318143116/https://poetryclass.poetrysociety.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Telegrams-Mario-Petrucci.pdf. 18 March 2021. live.
- Web site: Poetry Society commission [the Ecopoetry Study Packs]]. poetrysociety.org.uk. 21 October 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20220331111710/http://www.archive.poetrysociety.org.uk/content/poetry-class. 31 March 2022. dead.
- Web site: Creative Writing <-> Science. writeideas.org.uk. 15 June 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20080828020659/http://writeideas.org.uk/creativescience/. 28 August 2008. dead.
- Web site: Science poetry: Mario Petrucci. New Scientist. 10 July 2007. YouTube.
- Web site: Spatial Form. 11 November 2023. http://web.archive.org/web/20230601153938/http://mariopetrucci.com/spatialform.htm . 1 June 2023.
- Book: McLoughlin, Nigel. The Portable Poetry Workshop . Spatial Form . 2016. Palgrave Macmillan/ Red Globe Press/ Bloomsbury. 9780230522305. London. 990192945.
- Petrucci . Mario . 2006 . Spatial Form: a new way of looking at poetic form . Writing in Education . 40 . 37–40 . 1361-8539 .
- Petrucci . Mario . 2006 . Making Voices: Identity, Poeclectics and the Contemporary British Poet . The International Journal for the Practice and Theory of Creative Writing . 3 . 1 . 66–77 . 10.2167/new058.0 . 53523734 .
- Web site: "Getting Involved" (article on Mario Petrucci by Mick Delap, in online publication of: Magma no.19; Winter 2001) . 11 November 2023. http://web.archive.org/web/20231027204218/http://poetrymagazines.org.uk/magazine/record15da-2.html . 27 October 2023 .
- Web site: Writing Into Freedom & 'sonic stitching' (archived source). https://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/en/archive/20211122102534mp_/http://writingintofreedom.com/WIF-PDFs-depot/WIF-Quickfire-Module-2-SonicStitching-text-example.pdf . 22 November 2021 .
- Web site: Anthroposphere (the Oxford Climate Review) issue 8; article Art and Climate Change: Separate Bubbles or Mutual Membrane? followed by Rain (early example of 'Eco-Sci-Fi flash fiction'). 2022. Oxford Climate Society. Oxford. http://web.archive.org/web/20230712192831/https://www.anthroposphere.co.uk/post/art-and-climate-change . 12 July 2023.
- Web site: 'Heavy Water: a film for Chernobyl' and 'Half Life: a journey to Chernobyl' – by Phil Grabsky, David Bickerstaff & Mario Petrucci (Seventh Art Productions, 2006). heavy-water.co.uk. 17 September 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20080827212044/http://www.heavy-water.co.uk/. 27 August 2008. dead.
- Book: archived book information for Heavy Water: a poem for Chernobyl. 2 December 2023 . 9781900564342 . Petrucci . Mario . Enitharmon .
- Web site: Ted Hughes Award – the Poetry Society. 1 December 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230216235504/https://poetrysociety.org.uk/competitions/ted-hughes-award/. 16 February 2023. live.
- Web site: Ted Hughes Award 2012 shortlist. https://web.archive.org/web/20160310120855/https://poetrysociety.org.uk/competitions/ted-hughes-award/the-ted-hughes-award-for-new-work-in-poetry-2012/. 10 March 2016. live.
- Web site: Tales from The Bridge. atomictv.com. 1 December 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20121029143802/https://www.atomictv.com/TFTB.html. 29 October 2012. live.
- Web site: from Tales from the Bridge – the Poetry Society. 1 December 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20190622202633/https://poetrysociety.org.uk/poems/from-tales-from-the-bridge/. 22 June 2019. live.
- Web site: Tales From The Bridge – Martyn Ware. KitmonstersTV. 1 August 2012. YouTube.
- Web site: News 2012 – Illustrious Company (archived site). illustriouscompany.co.uk.
- Web site: KitMonsters – Tales From The Bridge. 1 December 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20221013014844/http://www.kitmonsters.com/blog/tales-from-the-bridge. 13 October 2022. live.
- Web site: Mayor of London press release. 27 July 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20210521094912/https://www.london.gov.uk//press-releases-4836. 21 May 2021. live.
- Web site: The British Library - A soundscape meditation on the history of the Thames (archived source). http://web.archive.org/web/20211024132121/https://www.bl.uk/events/happy-hour-tales-from-the-bridge . 24 October 2021.
- Web site: Flarestack Poets – Home. flarestackpoets.co.uk.
- Web site: Waterloo Press: home. waterloopress.co.uk.
- Web site: Nine Arches: home. ninearchespress.com.
- Web site: poetry film Heavy Water: a film for Chernobyl (early version of online source). atomictv.com. 1 December 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20061008222032/http://www.atomictv.com/heavywater.html. 8 October 2006. dead.
- Web site: poetry film Heavy Water: a film for Chernobyl (later version of online source). atomictv.com. 1 December 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20231022040813/https://www.atomictv.com/heavywater.html. 22 October 2023. live.
- Web site: poetry film Amazonia. atomictv.com. 1 December 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20220723084415/https://www.atomictv.com/amazonia.html. 23 July 2022. live.
- Web site: Independent publishers lead PEN Translates awards – The Bookseller. thebookseller.com. 1 December 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20220122184110/https://www.thebookseller.com/news/independents-lead-pen-translates-awards-329844. 22 January 2022. live.
- Web site: John Florio Prize – past winners. societyofauthors.org. 1 December 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20210914120704/https://www.societyofauthors.org/Prizes/Translation-Prizes/John-Florio/Past-winners. 14 September 2021. dead.
- Spatial Form, in Magma issue 57, eds. Ian McEwen & Hannah Lowe (2013); ISSN: 1352-9269.