Yves Bonnefoy

1923 - 2016

photo credits: Wikimedia Commons

genre: poetry, essay

country of citizenship: France

native language: French

languages spoken, written or signed: French

educated at: Faculty of Arts of Paris, Lycée Descartes, University of Poitiers

occupation: translator, writer, art critic, poet, university teacher, philosopher, essayist, art historian

award received: The prize of the BNF, Prix mondial Cino Del Duca, Prix Goncourt de la Poésie, Grand prix national de la poésie, Franz Kafka Prize, Balzan Prize, Janus Pannonius International Poetry Prize, prix de poésie Pierrette-Micheloud, Grand prix de littérature de la SGDL, honorary doctor of the University of Edinburgh, FIL Award, Honorary doctor of the University of Oxford, International Nonino Prize, Viareggio-Versilia International Prize, Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Golden Wreath

Yves Jean Bonnefoy (24 June 1923, Tours – 1 July 2016 Paris) was a French poet and art historian. He also published a number of translations, most notably the plays of William Shakespeare which are considered among the best in French. He was professor at the Collège de France from 1981 to 1993 and is the author of several works on art, art history, and artists including Miró and Giacometti, and a monograph on Paris-based Iranian artist Farhad Ostovani. The Encyclopædia Britannica states that Bonnefoy was ″perhaps the most important French poet of the latter half of the 20th century.″ Source: Wikipedia (en)