A Poetry Reading with Stephen Sexton
Tuesday, April 2 | 6:00 pm
Porter Byrum Welcome Center
Kulynych Auditorium | Wake Forest University
1580 Wake Forest Rd. Winston-Salem, NC 27109
Book signing and reception to follow. Free and open to the public.
In Stephen Sexton’s poetry, the levels of Super Mario World become a map to navigating grief, W. B. Yeats discovers the music of The Smashing Pumpkins, and past, present, and future are shuffled like a tarot deck in a style The Telegraph calls “fleet-footed and irrepressibly charming.”
Join us for a special poetry reading celebrating Stephen’s first two books, now available in North America from Wake Forest University Press!
Stephen Sexton’s first book, If All the World and Love Were Young was the winner of the Forward Prize for Best First Collection in 2019 and the Shine / Strong Award for Best First Collection. He was awarded the E. M. Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature in 2020. He was the winner of the National Poetry Competition in 2016 and the recipient of an Eric Gregory Award in 2018. Cheryl’s Destinies was published in 2021, and was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Collection. Wake Forest University Press reissued both collections in North America in 2024.
Praise for Stephen Sexton
“A poetry debut fit to compare with Seamus Heaney.” – The Times
“Stephen Sexton is a fabulous poet: gifted with a delicate ear, a humane and generous sensibility, and attentive to both the absurdities and the wonders of modern life. It’s a joy to read these unexpected and thrilling poems.” – Nick Laird
“Stephen Sexton makes anything seem possible: the simplest things and the most mysterious – which, of course, are one and the same.” – Geoff Dyer
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