Jean-Pierre Siméon


Jean-Pierre Siméon is a French poet, novelist, dramatist and translator. Siméon's publications have been awarded various national and international poetry prizes. His poetry and theater works are translated into around fifteen languages. In 2024 Siméon became the third French poet to win the Golden Wreath Award after Eugène Guillevic and Yves Bonnefoy.

Life and career

Jean-Pierre Siméon was born in Paris in May 1950.
His mother, Denise, was a teacher and his father, Roger, made a career in the national education administration and became head of publications at the University of Clermont-Ferrand where the family settled in 1962. He studied literature at the University of Clermont-Ferrand and became a teacher.
In 1977, with his father and a group of poets from Auvergne, he was one of the founders of the ARPA magazine, of which he was director. He was the founder of Semaine de la poésie in Clermont-Ferrand in 1987. He began writing for L'Humanité in the 90's. From 2001 to 2017 he was the art director of “Printemps des poètes”. From 2001 to 2019 he was an associate poet of the Théâtre National Populaire in Villeurbanne. He met Carolyn Carlson, whose poems he translated and with whom he created several poetry events based on his own texts or those of Carolyn Carlson.
Jean-Pierre Siméon has taught at the University Institute for Teachers Training, the National School of Theatre Arts and Techniques, and the Institute for Political Sciences.
He lives in Clermont-Ferrand and continues to write. He is the director of the Éditions Gallimard Poetry collection since 2018.

Tributes

The library of Saint-Brice-en-Coglès Jean-Pierre Siméon was named in his honour.

Selected works

Traquer la louve Fuite de l'immobile Le Sentiment du monde Lettre à la femme aimée au sujet de la mort Ceci est un poème qui guérit les poissons published in English as This Is a Poem That Heals Fish.
  • ''La poésie sauvera le monde''

As a translator

  • Michael West, Foley
  • Carolyn Carlson, Brins d'herbe
  • Carolyn Carlson, Dialogue avec Rothko : une lecture de "Untitled : black, red over black on red"
  • Carolyn Carlson, Traces d'encre
  • Carolyn Carlson, ''Au bord de l'infini : suivi de Dialogue avec Rothko : poésie''

Awards