David Harsent

David Harsent is an acclaimed poet, librettist, novelist and script writer. In 2014 he won the T.S. Eliot Prize for Fire Songs. In 2012 he was awarded the Griffin International Poetry Prize for Night. In 2005 he received the Forward Prize for Legion. Recent collections include Salt (Faber, 2017), Loss (Faber, 2020) and Homeland: Eighteen Bitter Songs: Versions of Yannis Ritsos (Rack Press, 2021). He has written a number of operas in collaboration with composer Harrison Birtwhistle, including...See more

David Harsent is an acclaimed poet, librettist, novelist and script writer. In 2014 he won the T.S. Eliot Prize for Fire Songs. In 2012 he was awarded the Griffin International Poetry Prize for Night. In 2005 he received the Forward Prize for Legion. Recent collections include Salt (Faber, 2017), Loss (Faber, 2020) and Homeland: Eighteen Bitter Songs: Versions of Yannis Ritsos (Rack Press, 2021). He has written a number of operas in collaboration with composer Harrison Birtwhistle, including Gawain, The Minotaur, The Cure and The Corridor. They have been performed at opera houses around the world including the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and Carnegie Hall. His collaborations with Birtwhistle include the song cycles The Woman and the Hare and Songs from the Same Earth. See less