Stephen Sexton

If All the World and Love Were Young

'Oils' is a collection of poems where the poise of the delivery belies the emotional, existential turmoil within. Through his portraits of an atheist, a pickpocket and a spinach-loving sailor (among others) Stephen Sexton evokes a strange kind of melancholy as he strives to reconcile passion with detachment and profound self-doubt with unwavering love.

Oils

The ancient Camino de Santiago pilgrimage routes are becoming more popular every year. This is the story of one man's walk, and his incredible adventure over 1200km in seven weeks. The author moves across northern Spain on multiple Camino and mountain routes, and in doing so reveals what an incredible experience it can be if you do it in the way of a true pilgrim - by suffering, and keeping an open mind to who you meet and what you are capable of. Moving through different landscapes and meeting extraordinary people, Spain's rich culture and history are revealed in this entertaining and easy to read adventure travel memoir.

1200km on the Camino de Santiago and Picos de Europa National Park

A Long Walk in Spain

Shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Collection history is what we call / what might have happened differently / and didn't It is the decade of centuries, and Cheryl tells us our fortune. Radicals liberate a zoo, teenagers flirt in a bowling alley, and the dead are cherished. In these inventive, playful, dream-like poems, Stephen Sexton takes us on a journey through the past and the present, while Cheryl translates from the future, showing us how we exist in all three at once. Reckoning with both public and private tragedies, the book is divided into three parts. In Part One, the poems range across old Europe: 'Edelweiss' and Titanic setting sail, to a transatlantic, cross-century symposium in Part Two, where two giants perfect their arts in collaboration. In Part Three we are back in the land where the past keeps breaking through, it's practically always the anniversary of something terrible, but there's always Cheryl in the moonlight and her deck of tarot cards. A thrillingly strange exploration of the comfort of the fantastical when the real is hard to bear, Cheryl's Destinies is the enchanting follow-up to the Forward Prize for Best First Collection-winning If All the World and Love Were Young, by one of the most exciting young poets writing today.

Cheryl's Destinies

Winner of the Forward Prize for Best First Collection Longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize A Sunday Times, New Statesman and Telegraph Book of the Year 2019 'Every poem in this book is a marvel. Taken all together they make up a work of almost miraculous depth and beauty' Sally Rooney 'A poetry debut fit to compare with Seamus Heaney. This wonderful long poem is up there with the greats' Sunday Times When Stephen Sexton was young, video games were a way to slip through the looking glass; to be in two places at once; to be two people at once. In these poems about the death of his mother, this moving, otherworldly narrative takes us through the levels of Super Mario World, whose flowered landscapes bleed into our world, and ours, strange with loss, bleed into it. His remarkable debut is a daring exploration of memory, grief and the necessity of the unreal.

Stephen Sexton

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