David Harsent and Ruth Padel, Print Room at The Coronet

David Harsent
David Harsent is a unique voice in British poetry, casting an unstinting eye on the dusky back rooms of human psyche. He will read from and discuss his eleventh collection, Fire Songs. It has been hailed as Harsent’s finest collection yet. Littered with recurring ideas and images that transform the whole book into a loose sequence, it continues the nocturnal tone of 2011’s Night . His poems are haunting, disquieting and sometimes even horrifying, taking the reader on thorny odysseys through human uncertainty. There’s a dash of film noir and a touch of the mythic , enchanting the reader to follow him into a world of where dream meets nightmare. The 2005 sequence Legion , which compiled accounts from an unnamed war zone, drew the reader into the heart of the conflict. Night won the Griffin Poetry Prize and was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot and Costa awards , while Legion won the Forward Prize for Best Collection . Alongside poetry, Harsent composes libretti for Harrison Birtwistle and writes crime novels under two pseudonyms.

Ruth Padel
Ruth Padel is not only an esteemed poet, but also a critic, nature writer, musician, conservationist, regular broadcaster on BBC radio and recently a novelist with her book Where the Serpent Lives. Her latest collection, Learning to Make an Oud in Nazareth , from which she will read at the Print Room, fuses faiths and the idea of creation in a poetic exploration of the Middle East. Characteristically diverse, the collection synthesises contemporary political conflict with gentle streams of love poetry and musicality.