During his early career he was part of a circle of poets centred on
Ian Hamilton and forming something of a school, promoting conciseness and
imagist-like clarity in verse, though his work has changed and developed a good deal since then. He has published twelve collections of poetry which have won several literary prizes and awards.
Legion won the Forward Prize for best collection 2005 and was shortlisted for both the T. S. Eliot and Whitbread Awards.
Night (2012) was triple short-listed for major awards in the UK and won the Griffin International Poetry Prize.
Fire Songs won the T. S. Eliot Prize in 2014.
Sprinting from the Graveyard, his versions of poems written by the Bosnian poet
Goran Simić, while under siege in Sarajevo, appeared in 1997 and was adapted to opera, radio and television.
In Secret, his versions of
Yiannis Ritsos, was published in 2012. His work in music theatre has involved collaborations with a number of composers (but most often with Sir
Harrison Birtwistle) and has been performed at the
Royal Opera House,
Carnegie Hall, the
Southbank Centre,
The Proms, the
Wiener Kammeroper, the Southbank Centre, the Aldeburgh Festival, the Holland Festival, and broadcast on
BBC Two,
Channel 4 and Trio (USA).
The Minotaur (also with Birtwistle), opened at The Royal Opera House in 2008. Birtwistle once again turned to Harsent's words for his major song cycle
Songs from the Same Earth (2012–13) and for the chamber operas
The Corridor and
The Cure.. The New York Times described Harsent and Birtwistle as a 'team creating alchemy'. Other words for music include operas
Crime Fiction and
In the Locked Room (music by Huw Watkins) and
When She Died (music by Jonathan Dove), together with the song cycle
Man Made: an early response to the climate crisis (music by Christian Mason) and an oratorio,
The Judas Passion (music by Sally Beamish). Harsent is a
Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and Fellow of the Hellenic Authors Society. He was appointed Distinguished Writing Fellow at
Sheffield Hallam University. In 2012 he was appointed Professor of Creative Writing at
Bath Spa University. He left Bath Spa University in favour of The University of Roehampton in July 2013 after receiving an honorary degree. He lives with his wife, the actress
Julia Watson, and their daughter in
Barnes, London. == Bibliography ==