David Harsent has published nine collections of poetry. The most recent, Legion, won the Forward Prize for best collection 2005 and was shortlisted for both the Whitbread Award and the T.S. Eliot Prize. His Selected Poems appeared from Faber in June 2007, and were shortlisted for the Griffin International Poetry Prize. His work in music theatre has involved collaborations with a number of composers, but most often with Harrison Birtwistle, and has been performed at the Royal Opera House, Carnegie Hall, the Proms and on Channel 4 TV. A new opera, The Minotaur (also with Birtwistle) opened to spectacular reviews at the Royal Opera House in April 2008. Work in progress includes a novel, The Wormhole, and a new collection of poems.

Harsent also writes crime fiction and screenplays under the pseudonym David Lawrence. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and is a Visiting Professor at Sheffield Hallam University.