George Szirtes reads at Gort Library, Co Galway

galway | arts and media | event notice Tuesday October 05, 2010 18:39 by Fred Johnston - The Western Writers' Centre, Galway - Ionad Scríbhneoirí Chaitlín Maude westernwriters at eircom dot net Canavan Hse., Nuns Island, Galway 087.2178138

October 20th set for major reading organised by the Western Writers' Centre

The Western Writers' Centre - Ionad Scríbhneoirí Chaitlín Maude - Galway presents a reading by renowned Hungarian born British poet, GEORGE SZIRTES, on Wednesday, October 20th, at Gort Library, Gort, Co. Galway. The reading begins at 8pm. Admission is free. With him will be Clare poet and musician PATRICK STACK.

George Szirtes

"The Centre is delighted to bring George Szirtes to Gort to read," said the Centre's Director, Fred Johnston. "It was very good of him to take the time to come and read for us."George Szirtes was born in 1948 in born Budapest, and came to England as a refugee in 1956 aged 8. He was brought up in London and studied Fine Art in London and Leeds.His poems began appearing in national magazines in 1973 and his first book, The Slant Door, was published in 1979. It won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize the following year.He has won a variety of prizes for his work, most recently the 2004 T. S. Eliot Prize, for his collection Reel and the Bess Hokin Prize for poems in Poetry magazine, 2008. His translations from Hungarian poetry, fiction and drama have also won numerous awards.Szirtes lives in Wymondham, Norfolk, and teaches at the University of East Anglia. He is married to the artist Clarissa Upchurch, with whom he ran The Starwheel Press and who has been responsible for most of his book jacket images. Her interest in the city of Budapest has led to over twenty years of exploration of the city, its streets, buildings and courtyards in paintings and drawings.The Western Writers' Centre acknowledges the support of The Arts Council and Galway County Council