Hard Drive

With the world turned upside down following the sudden death of a same sex partner, the poet works through the aftermath, negotiating the people and 'stuff' left behind, and transforming difficult lived experience by interrogating language as a means to process grief and loss, ultimately finding love, hope and catharsis.

---

Shortlisted for the Gay Poetry Lammy Award 2024.

When his partner suddenly died, life changed utterly for Paul Stephenson. Hard Drive is the outcome of his revisiting a world he thought he knew, but which had been upended. In poems that are affectionate, self-examining, sometimes funny and often surprised by grief in the oddest corners, the poet takes us through rooms, routines, and rituals of bereavement, the memory of love, a shared life and separation. A noted formalist, with a flair for experiment, pattern and the use of constraints, Stephenson has written a remarkable first book, moving and, despite everything, a hopeful record of a gay relationship. It is also a landmark elegy collection.