POET Stephen Sexton has picked up a literary honour at this year's 2018 Authors' Awards.
Writers from around the world came together last night for the ceremony, hosted by Stephen Fry.
Previous award winners including Zadie Smith and Seamus Heaney.
Mr Sexton, from Ballygowan Co Down, was presented the Eric Gregory Award, for his collection The Animals, Moon.
He teaches at the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry at Queen's University Belfast.
Judge Inua Ellams said: "The poems in Stephen Sexton's The Animals, Moon would turn line after line, burrowing into themselves. Surprising and funny, they show Stephen Sexton's ability to construct resonant myth and narrative out of the everyday nothing."
Damian Smyth, Head of Literature at the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, said the exceptional quality of Mr Sexton's poetry had been recognised for some time.
"It is no surprise that it has been repeatedly acknowledged with awards and prizes," he said.
"The Arts Council of Northern Ireland is pleased to have been associated with a gift of this calibre and adds its congratulations to Stephen as his work finds new readers and new advocates at the highest level."
