Facing the Public

Evans Martina

The opening poems of the Cork-born writer's fourth collection draw on stories from her Irish childhood, tales of the impact of the Black and Tans on her family's locality in the 1920s. The heady brew of Irish politics and religion is close to the surface throughout. The title poem captures conversational drama in her most engaging style, familiar to audiences at her highly successful readings:

"My mother never asked like a normal person, it was
I'm asking you for the last time, I'm imploring you
not to go up that road again late for Mass..."

About the Author

Martina Evans was born in 1961, the youngest of ten children, and grew up in County Cork. After training as a radiographer in Dublin she moved to London in 1988. Her first collection of poems, "The Inniscarra Bar and Cycle Rest", appeared in 1995 and was followed by three further collections, "All Alcoholics are Charmers" (1998), "Can Dentists Be Trusted?" (2004) and "Facing the Public" (2009). She teaches Creative Writing at the City Literary Institute and Birkbeck College. She is also the author of three novels: "Midnight Feast" (1996), "The Glass Mountain" (1997), "No Drinking No Dancing No Doctors" (2000) and the prose-poem/novella "Petrol" (2012). She lives in London with her daughter.

Reviews

Awards won by Martina Evans
Winner, 2011 Premio Ciampi Internazionale di Poesia (Ciampi International Poetry Prize) (Facing the Public)

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