Writers at Manchester Met: sam sax at No 70

As part of its Writers at Manchester Met series, The Manchester Writing School presents a unique opportunity to hear the acclaimed American poet sam sax, over on a rare trip to read in the UK. Lauded by Man Met Creative Writing lecturer Andrew McMillan – who just launched his second collection playtime, on Jonathan Cape, at the Bluecoat in Liverpool – sam sax describes himself as a queer, Jewish poet and educator.

He’s the author of four chapbooks and two poetry collections: 2017’s madness, published by Penguin and winner of the National Poetry Series, selected by one of his contemporaries, TS Eliot 2018 shortlisted poet Terrance Hayes, and bury it, out earlier this year with Wesleyan University Press and already the winner of the James Laughlin Award. This year, he has also picked up a Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation. But then it is practically Christmas…

With poems in, among other journals, BuzzFeed, the New York Times, Poetry magazine and Tin House, sam sax is also the poetry editor of BOAAT Press. With an MFA in poetry from the University of Texas at Austin, he has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Lambda Literary and the McDowell Colony, and he’s the winner of the Gulf Coast Prize, the Iowa Review Award and the American Literary Award.

You could, therefore, say he’s pretty widely published and acclaimed, and – if his Poetry Foundation podcast performances and the fact that he’s a two-time Bay Area Grand Slam Champion are anything to go by – he’s also a dab-hand at reading live, so this event with recital, chat and Q&A should be something worth venturing out for on a wintery Wednesday evening.

*Please note that this event has been moved to the Business School