After a year spent in the US, on a Henry Fellowship at Harvard (1978–79), he began work on his PhD, and was awarded a bursary to study at the British Institute in Paris.

Into the Deep Street : 7 Modern French Poets (1938-2008), co-translated with Jennie Feldman, (Anvil, 2009) won Special Commendation for the Popescu Prize 2009.

Over the years, Romer has produced editions and translations of Yves Bonnefoy, widely considered the major French post-war poet and thinker.

With John Naughton and Anthony Rudolf, Romer co-edited the major collection of Bonnefoy now available in English, the two-volume Carcanet Reader.

As a product of his interest in the foundations of Franco-British Modernism, Romer edited and translated French Decadent Tales (Oxford World's Classics, 2013), an anthology of short stories from the era of so-called Décadence, including writers like Jules Barbey d’Aurevilly, Auguste Villiers de L’Isle-Adam, Guy de Maupassant, Octave Mirbeau, Léon Bloy, Marcel Schwob, Jean Lorrain, Catulle Mendès, Jean Richepin and Pierre Louÿs.

Pursuing an academic career, Romer has contributed numerous chapters to edited books, notably on Pierre Reverdy, Paul Valéry, T.S.

Plato's Ladder further demonstrates his ability to express intimate and intense personal experience while retaining the impress of a complex and erudite sensibility'.