Sergio Badilla Castillo

Sergio Badilla Castillo
Sergio Badilla Castillo at Santiago’s Book Fair 2013
Born	(1947-11-30)November 30, 1947 Valparaíso
Occupation	Poet, journalist
Language	Spanish (Chilean)
Nationality	Chile

Sergio Badilla Castillo (born November 30, 1947 in Valparaiso, Chile) is a Chilean poet and the founder of poetic transrealism in contemporary poetry. He is considered the Latin American poet with the broadest Nordic influence, from the Finnish poets, Edith Södergran, Elmer Diktonius, Paavo Haavikko, Pentti Saarikoski and the Swedes Gunnar Ekelöf, Tomas Tranströmer and Lars Gustafsson.

Badilla Castillo graduated in journalism from the University of Chile in 1972. He graduated also in Methodology of Social Anthropology,in the Stockholm University.

Badilla Castillo worked almost thirteen years at The Swedish Radio Broadcasting Co, as culture journalist, a concern that would lead later, to his work as a translator of Swedish and Scandinavian poetry, British and American poetry.

Badilla Castillo's father was a sailor from whom he got his nomadic motivation. Badilla Castillo travelled throughout Europe, North Africa and the Middle East during the twenty years he spent in Scandinavia. He settled for a while also in Romania in 1975, interested in ancient Wallachian and Transylvanian mythology.