George Szirtes Readings
'George Szirtes is a deserving recipient of the King’s Gold Medal for Poetry. For decades his crafted, observational poems have turned the spotlight on society and its values - how countries and regimes treat their people, how people operate under fluctuating political ideologies. His work and his perspectives are as relevant now as they were when he first put pen to paper, and possibly more so.' – Simon Armitage, Poet Laureate, on behalf of the Poetry Medal Committee 2024
George Szirtes was born in Budapest in 1948, and came to England with his family after the 1956 Hungarian Uprising. He was educated in England, training as a painter, and has always written in English. His Bloodaxe poetry books include: The Budapest File (2000); An English Apocalypse (2001); Reel (2004), winner of the T.S. Eliot Prize; New & Collected Poems (2008) and The Burning of the Books and other poems (2009), shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize 2009. Bad Machine (2013) was a Poetry Book Society Choice and shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize 2013. His fifteenth collection, Fresh Out of the Sky, was published by Bloodaxe in 2021. George Szirtes was awarded The King's Gold Medal for Poetry, 2024.
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A wonderful in-depth review of George Szirtes’ new collection Fresh Out of the Sky featured in the March 2022 issue of the online journal Dublin Review of Books. Read in full here.
‘Without question, George Szirtes is the most distinguished poet now living in England. Hungary’s loss was England’s gain in 1956 and those elements of Budapest Jewish life that Szirtes has reclaimed imaginatively only serve to enrich and expand England’s poetic consciousness.... Dealing with the most dreadful, dark materials, painfully honest about exile and isolation, Fresh Out of the Skies is, unexpectedly, a joyous and life-affirming work.’ – Thomas McCarthy, Dublin Review of Books
'His latest volume of poems is a tour de force of what he has termed "the music of what happens", a supremely well-modulated examination of both his own life and the world at large as seen through the eyes of someone, in Bob Dylan’s words, "always on the outside of whatever side there was".' – Nick Cooke, London Grip, on Fresh Out of the Sky
George Szirtes was Michael Berkeley’s guest on BBC Radio 3's Private Passions on 9 May 2021 (repeated 30 January 2022). He talked about his life and work as well as his musical choices. His poetry for adults is published by Bloodaxe. His thirteenth collection Fresh Out of the Sky, published by Bloodaxe in October 2021, remembers his arrival in England as a child in 1956, following his dramatic escape from Hungary. Listen here (this podcast edition has shorter musical clips).
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A substantial extract from a major interview with poet and translator George Szirtes was published in Hungarian Literature Online on 25 April 2025. Full profile and film portrait to follow.
In this excerpt from a long-form interview, George Szirtes talks about his relationship with the English and Hungarian languages and why he feels that he has always been a guest in England, even though he has lived there almost his entire life (he has lived England from the age of 8 after his family fled Hungary as refugees following the Hungarian Uprising).
https://hlo.hu/interview/george-szirtes-i-saw-myself-as-a-budapest-tenement-block-in-an-english-suburb-teaser-from-a-forthcoming-interview.html
FORTHCOMING EVENTS
Friday 26th June, 8pm
Ledbury Poetry Festival: George Szirtes In Conversation with Peter Florence
Burgage Hall, Ledbury
Winner of the King’s Gold Medal, George Szirtes came to the UK from Hungary as a refugee aged 8. Today, he is one of the UK’s most respected poets, winning numerous prizes including the Man Booker International Prize, the T. S. Eliot Prize, and the European Poetry Translation Prize. Prepare to feel moved by poetry of memory, displacement, and remarkable precision from one of the most compelling poets of our time.
Tickets: £14. More details and booking here.
Saturday 27th June, 10am
Workshop at Ledbury Poetry Festival: Form and its Rooms with George Szirtes
The Victorian Room, Ledbury Library
What is the role of form, whether obvious or hidden, traditional, modern, or self-invented? This workshop with George Szirtes asks why we should have some awareness of form, what it does and how it helps us. Is it possible to work such lines into sequences that may resemble the rooms of a house so we pass through them as living habitations? Participants will try a few short set forms and one longer, while exploring the house of our experience and imagination through a brief sequence.
Tickets: £26. More details and booking here.
More events in Autumn 2026 to be announced.
PAST EVENTS
ONLINE LAUNCH EVENT ON 19 OCTOBER 2021
Bloodaxe's joint launch reading by Claire Askew, Annemarie Austin and George Szirtes celebrating the publication of their new poetry collections was livestreamed on 19 October 2021, and is now available on YouTube (see video below).
Claire Askew and George Szirtes were reading live and discussing their new collections with the host, Bloodaxe editor Neil Astley, with audio recordings of Annemarie Austin reading, accompanied by screen-shares of her poems. Although three very different poets, their work explores memory, history, oppression, personal history and stories - themes that were explored by George and Claire in their conversation.
George Szirtes read first in each set, followed by Claire, and then Annemarie. George began by reading from the first section of Fresh Out of the Sky, a sequence of poems about his arrival in rainy England as a boy in 1956, having fled from Hungary with his family following the Hungarian Uprising. In the second set, Claire read some of her contemporary poems about relationships, while George read some of his poems responding to the pandemic.
[09 March 2022]
