Joy Is My Middle Name

Author: Sasha Debevec-McKenney

Poetry

Published on 3 July 2025 by Fitzcarraldo Editions in the United Kingdom.

Paperback | 86 pages
134 x 198 x 13mm | 164g

Winner of the 2026 Dylan Thomas PrizeJoy Is My Middle Name documents crawling through your twenties and emerging into your thirties. Walking uneasy cities and rural towns, talking about sex, race, womanhood, addiction, sobriety, consumerism and pop culture, these poems pull at the edges of the performed self with conversational ease.

Humble, giddy, bold, empathetic, subversive, hilarious, lithe – the collection feels like a conversation with your greatest friend, over the best dinner. Full of stories, character, awkward silence, relatable sentiment; the buzz of perfect moments are funnelled onto the page.