David Constantine

David John Constantine (born 1944) is an English poet, author and translator.

Background
Born in Salford, Constantine read Modern Languages at Wadham College, Oxford, and was a Fellow of The Queen's College, Oxford, until 2000, when he became a Supernumerary Fellow. He lectured in German at Durham University from 1969 to 1981 and at Oxford University from 1981 to 2000.

He was the co-editor of the literary journal Modern Poetry in Translation. Along with the Irish poet Bernard O'Donoghue, he is commissioning editor of the Oxford Poets imprint of Carcanet Press and has been a chief judge for the TS Eliot Prize.

His collections of poetry include Madder, Watching for Dolphins, Caspar Hauser, The Pelt of Wasps, Something for the Ghosts, Collected Poems and Nine Fathom Deep. He is a translator of Hölderlin, Brecht, Goethe, Kleist, Michaux and Jaccottet.

In 2015, the film 45 Years, based on Constantine's short story "In Another Country", enjoyed critical acclaim. The film stars Tom Courtenay and Charlotte Rampling. Rampling was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance.

Constantine is also author of two novels, Davies and The Life Writer, a biography, Fields of Fire: A Life of Sir William Hamilton, and multiple collections of short stories, including Back at the Spike, the highly acclaimed Under the Dam (2005) and The Shieling (2009) and the award-winning Tea at the Midland and Other Stories.

Awards and honours

 * 2020 Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry
 * 2013 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, Tea at the Midland and Other Stories
 * 2010 BBC National Short Story Award, "Tea at the Midland"
 * 2010 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, shortlist, The Shieling
 * 2003 Popescu Prize, translation of Hans Magnus Enzensberger's Lighter than Air
 * 2002 Whitbread Poetry Prize, shortlist, Watching for Dolphins

Translations

 * Bertolt Brecht: The Antigone of Sophocles
 * The Collected Poems of Bertolt Brecht (translated with Tom Kuhn)
 * Hans Magnus Enzensberger: Lighter than Air
 * Hans Magnus Enzensberger: New Selected Poems
 * Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: The Sorrows of Young Werther
 * Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Faust, Part 1
 * Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Faust, Part 2
 * Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Elective Affinities
 * Friedrich Hölderlin: Sophocles: Oedipus and Antigone
 * Friedrich Hölderlin: Selected Poems
 * Philippe Jaccottet: Under Clouded Skies & Beauregard (translated with Mark Treharne)
 * Heinrich von Kleist: Selected Writings
 * Henri Michaux: Spaced, Displaced (translated with Helen Constantine)

Reviews

 * Hearn, Sheila G. (1981), review of A Brightness to Cast Shadows, in Murray, Glen (ed.), Cencrastus No. 5, Summer 1981, pp. 51