AustLit

Poet, editor, Emeritus Professor and critic Keith Harrison was awarded a Bachelor of Arts in English and French from the University of Melbourne in 1954, and a Master of Arts from the University of Iowa in 1967. He has worked as a freelance poet, journalist and broadcaster, and has held several international academic posts, including Professor of English at Carleton College, Minnesota. His reviews and critical work have been published in Australian and international literary journals and he has published a translation of the middle English poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Harrison also edited the Uncollected Poems and Prose (2001) of A.K. Ramanujan and Islands West : Stories From the Coast (2001).

Harrison's poetry has appeared in a number of anthologies, literary magazines and newspapers, including The New Statesman, The New York Times, The Observer (London), Poetry (Australia), Quadrant, The Spectator and Westerly. Harrison has participated in many public poetry readings, including television, radio, and a performance at the Edinburgh Festival. He is also the also author of plays and radio plays, including The Water Man, broadcast on BBC and ABC.

Harrison has regularly spent time in Australia and at his farm-house in southern Minnesota.