Recently returned from Italy where she picked up the Ciampi International Poetry Prize, Irish poet Martina Evans popped into the studio to talk about mining her past, the poetry of country music, and finding inspiration on the tube! We heard the title poem from her acclaimed collection ‘Facing the Public’, and moving extracts from her new work ‘Petrol’…

Martina's first novel ‘Midnight Feast’ won a Betty Trask Award and her third, ‘No Drinking No Dancing No Doctors’ won an Arts Council England Award. Her latest poetry collection, ‘Facing the Public’ won bursary awards from both the Irish Arts Council and Arts Council England. She is the Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Queen Mary, University London.

‘Petrol’ will be released in 2012 and is currently being developed as a multi-media performance by LLL Productions, directed by Mark Hewitt.
www.martinaevans.com

‘Facing the Public’ is out now, published by Anvil Press
www.anvilpresspoetry.com/pages/store/products/ec_view.asp?PID=129