Stephen Sexton has a long association with the Society, as a former bursary student, and readings at Hewitt’s Spring Festival 2015, and the John Hewitt Birthday Readings, 2017, alongside the late poet Ciáran Carson. A QUB Seamus Heaney Centre graduate, he now lecturers on its Creative Writing programme. His debut pamphlet, Oils, (Emma Press, 2014), was a Poetry Book Society Winter Pamphlet Choice. His debut poetry collection, When all the World and Love Were Young, (Penguin, 2019) has won many accolades including, Forward Prize for Best First Collection, Shine/Strong Prize for Best First Collection, The E M Forster Award, Sunday Times, New Statesman and Telegraph Book of the Year, and shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize and the John Pollard Poetry Prize.