When David Harsent’s previous collection, Legion, won the Forward Poetry Prize, he described poetry as “deep and crucial”. I asked him what he meant by this, and he explained the importance poetry has had in his life since his childhood. To listen, click here.
I then asked him how his new collection, Night, had taken shape. [Click here.]
The hare is a recurring image throughout David Harsent’s career. I asked him to tell me about its significance for him in his imaginative landscape. [Click here.]
There are three translations of poems by the Greek poet Cavafy in Night. I asked David Harsent about his experience of producing versions of other poets’ work. [Click here.]
To listen to the complete interview with David Harsent in which he discusses – inter alia – how landing on his head as a boy turned him into a poet, how he unexpectedly became a war poet and why he is so fascinated by hares, click here.
Listen to David Harsent reading from his new collection by clicking on the links below:
The Garden in SunlightA View of the House from the Back of the Garden
At the Tobacconist’s Window (from Three Poems After Cavafy)
