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.

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Shortlisted for the Polari Book Prize 2024.
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.