Oils is a gorgeous, beguiling 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.

Stephen Sexton's pamphlet, Oils (Emma Press, 2014), was the Poetry Book Society's Winter Pamphlet Choice, and his first collection, If All the World and Love Were Young (Penguin, 2019), won the Forward Prize for Best First Collection. He was the winner of the 2016 National Poetry Competition, the recipient of an ACES award from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, and was awarded an Eric Gregory Award in 2018.