photo: Moira Conway

Tony Harrison

Tony Harrison was born in Leeds, England, in 1937. He is the author of several books of poetry, including Laureate's Block (Penguin, 2000); The Shadow of Hiroshima (1995), winner of the William Heinemann Prize; The Gaze of the Gorgon (1992), which was awarded the Whitbread Prize for Poetry; and Selected Poems (1984).

He is also a noted translator, dramatist, and librettist whose works have been performed by Britain's National Theatre and the New York Metropolitan Opera. Harrison is also a maker of television and film poetry.

His honors include a Unesco fellowship, the Faber Memorial Award, a U.S. Bicentennial fellowship, and the European Poetry Translation Prize. He was made a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1984. He lives in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England.