Constant Is the Rain

Fiction and poetry. According to Kirkus Reviews: "“Relentless pessimism about the state of the nation infuses Sexton’s … accomplished poetry and short fiction … The title piece, about hard life and untimely death in the ghetto, introduces the book’s dark atmosphere: ‘Being and begetting, struggling and/ enduring … as gunfire crackles and sirens wail/ and her fate is sealed with coffin nails.’ Sexton’s characters Nowhere Men as much as Everymen are war veterans, hobos, sex workers, and blue-collar employees facing job losses … His settings are urban wastelands. In ‘The Penworn Papers’ an impoverished artist recalls his degenerate life … in ‘The Gift,’ a Jewish satire redolent of Shalom Auslander, a young man reverts to emptiness in his old age … The palette is Edward Hopper’s, the ironic tone O. Henry’s. ‘Our Town’ playfully affirms Thornton Wilder’s morbid vision through gloomy imagery. The poems (are) rich with alliteration, internal rhymes, assonance and puns … They have broader application, universalizing human depravity …Sexton’s talent for social commentary and character sketching marks him as in a title he gives a character in ‘Chop Suey’ the Modigliani of the Mean Streets” Rex Sexton is a Surrealist painter exhibiting in Chicago and Philadelphia. His award winning art has been exhibited in museums, televised on PBS, written about in newspapers, reproduced in magazines and included in national and international exhibitions. His poetry and prose have appeared in cutting-edge literary magazines. His short story “Holy Night” received an Eric Hoffer award and was published in Best New Writing 2007. His poem “Orchard” received the 2012 Annual Editor- in-Chief Award from Möbius The Poetry Magazine. His poem “Ashes of Winter” was runner up for The 2011 Doctor Zylpha Mapp Robinson International Poetry Award. His poem “Gift Wrapped” was nominated for a 2013 Pushcart Prize by Kind of a Hurricane Press. He is married to the neuroscientist Dr. Rochelle S. Cohen.