John Hewitt Birthday Reading

The John Hewitt Society presents three award-winning poets in the annual reading to mark the birth date of John Hewitt, the celebrated Belfast-born poet, in the pub named after him.

Sasha Dugdale is a poet, translator and editor who has published three collections of poetry, the most recent of which is Red House (Carcanet, 2011). Her long poem Joy won the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem in 2016.

Vona Groarke has published six collections including X, a Poetry Book Society Recommendation for Spring 2014, and Selected Poems (2016). A former editor of Poetry Ireland Review, she currently teaches poetry at the University of Manchester.

Belfast-born Stephen Sexton was the winner of the Poetry Society’s 2016 National Poetry Competition and he was recipient of an ACES award from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. His pamphlet, Oils, was a Poetry Book Society’s Winter Pamphlet Choice.

Presented in association with Poetry Ireland.