New Writing

Born in Hungary in 1948, George Szirtes came to England as a refugee following the Hungarian Uprising in 1956. He trained as a painter at Harrow School of Art and Leeds College of Art and Design. His first collection of poetry, The Slant Door (1979), won the Faber Memorial Prize. Bridge Passages (1991) was shortlisted for the Whitbread Poetry Prize. Reel (2004) won the T.S. Eliot Prize, and his New and Collected Poems was published by Bloodaxe in 2008. His poem 'Song' won the 2009 Forward Poetry Prize for Best Single Poem. As a translator he has won several awards, including the The European Poetry Translation Prize, the Dery Prize, the Pro Cultura Hungaria medal, and the Gold Star of the Hungarian Republic, as well as being twice shortlisted for the Weidenfeld Prize. His own work has been translated into numerous languages and widely anthologized, including in Penguin’s British Poetry Since 1945. George Szirtes was a Reader in Creative Writing at UEA from 2008 until his retirement in 2014.