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T S Eliot Prize Winner to give poetry reading

Award-winning poet George Szirtes will give a reading at the University of Kent on Tuesday 2 December.

The reading will take place at 7.00pm in Darwin Lecture Theatre 1, Darwin College, on the University's Canterbury campus. Tickets are £6.00, £5.00 for concessions, which includes a complimentary glass of wine or soft drink. There is disabled access to Darwin College and the lecture theatre.

George Szirtes was born in Budapest in 1948 and came to England following the 1956 Hungarian Uprising. Originally trained as an artist, he has become a renowned poet, translator, editor and critic. He is the author of numerous books of poetry. His first, The Slant Door (1979) won the Faber Memorial Prize and his 2004 collection, Reel, was awarded the T S Eliot Prize.

His latest book, New and Collected Poems, contains poetry from over a dozen collections written over four decades, with a substantial gathering of new poems. It was published in November 2008 at the same time as the first critical study of his work, Reading George Szirtes by John Sears.

The reading has been organised by Patricia Debney, Canterbury Laureate and Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University's School of English. She says: 'We are honoured and delighted to welcome one of the most eminent poets and translators working in Britain today. George Szirtes' work is important and original, always profoundly sensitive to language, culture and art.'

Tickets will be available at the door or in advance from the School of English. For more information please contact Janet Montefiore

Contact: mediaoffice@kent.ac.uk

Story published at 4:54pm 24 November 2008