Carcanet Press - Facing the Public

Description
Excerpt
Author
Awards
Reviews

Desperate Men

Christmas Day and Good Friday
were the only days that the pub closed.
And yet they came –
trembling strangers, under hats and caps,
lapels turned up against the slanting wind
or hiding a dog collar.
They were desperate.
We knew men like them for 363 days of the year
apologetic, obsequious and persistent,
dark ravens
tap tap tapping at our front door.
Isn’t it a fright? everyone whispered
over the Brussels sprouts, the one day in the year.
Wouldn’t you think they would stock up or their wives could ...?
I pondered but sshhh in the name of God my mother
looked at me as if I was planning my future.
You’ll draw them in on top of us,
she passed out slices of turkey on tip-toe
and we avoided the noise of cutlery on china
chewing tensely until we heard the sound
of footsteps on gravel again
the wind-up growl of an old Escort or Cortina starting up,
driving away.

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 …

This book will be available again soon

Martina Evans grew up in County Cork and trained in Dublin as a radiographer before moving to London in 1988. She is the author of twelve books poetry and prose. She has won several awards including the Premio Ciampi International Prize for Poetry in 2011. Now We Can Talk Openly About ... read more

Awards won by Martina Evans Short-listed, 2019 Irish Times Poetry Now Award (Now We Can Talk Openly About Men) Short-listed, 2019 The Pigott Poetry Award (Now We Can Talk Openly About Men) Short-listed, 2019 The Roehampton Poetry Prize (Now We Can Talk Openly About Men) Short-listed, 2015 Irish Times Poetry Now Award (Burnfort, Las Vegas) Winner, 2011 Premio Ciampi Internazionale di Poesia (Ciampi International Poetry Prize) (Facing the Public)

'A deceptively casual and enjoyable collection.'
Irish Times Praise for Martina Evans 'Martina Evans keeps the reader in close and constant orbit... It gave me immense pleasure'

Megan Fernandes, Poetry Foundation

'Martina Evans' poems are compressed stories, if not entire novels, in all but their word counts. The specimens, none of them overlong, in American Mules jaunt along delightfully, as if spoken into your ear, and they show a particular interest in the details of the everyday - she is the least abstract, least generalising of poets. There is no poetical windbaggery here, more a pleasing companionableness, a grabbing-you-by-the-under-arm and racing you along beside'

Michael Glover, The Tablet

'Martina Evans's American Mules, a scintillating poetry collection from a unique, deeply observant, beautifully compassionate consciousness which creates a fully realised world of its own.'

Catriona Crowe, The Irish Times

'American Mules by Martina Evans is a glorious collection of poems, two books within one, an astonishment of riches. How she melds narrative audacity with sharp insight and juicy lyricism is so memorable. It's a book that gets into your heart. These poems echo and shimmer'

Joseph O'Connor, The Irish Times

'Striking powers of social observation... every single adjective attentively exact... Without straining for effect, she mixes pity with horror - and a repeated theme of fallibility'

Fiona Sampson, The Guardian

'Her work is humane and funny, often beautiful, always without sentiment or bitterness... It is loose, chatty and free, awash with hospitals, cats and shoes. For Evans the joy of the given moment, the past's ever-present grief, the dreams of films and books, are frequencies overlapping at once... Evans is that rarest of rara avis, a poet whose work is at once serious and authentically enjoyable... American Mules is a book of splendours and will surely count among her very best.'

Conor O'Callaghan, The Irish Times

'Terrifying tales of peace'

Kate Clanchy, The Guardian

'Evans's decision to occupy and represent these women in the midst of a period in Irish history which is at once surrounded by silence and overexposed in the long shadow it has cast, leaves us with a work which is compelling, subtle, compassionate and evocative.'

Rosie Lavan, Poetry Ireland Review

'A sharply idiomatic reflection of the Irish revolution and Civil War... it is unputdownable'.
Roy Foster, TLS Books of the Year 2018
'Totally captivating.'
Susan Jane Sims, Artemis Poetry
  '...a rich poetic contribution to our forthcoming interrogation of the War of independence, two intense and riveting dramatic monologues by women affected by the burning of Mallow in 1920, and the malaise of the new state in 1924.'
Catriona Crowe, The Irish Times Best Books of 2018
    'Evans manages in this collection, like a great filmmaker or novelist, to gift the audience (and I use the word "audience" deliberately) with immersion into a world so real and complete we have to reluctantly drag ourselves back to our fictional lives.'
Anne Tannam, The Dublin Review of Books

'Full of insight and humour...Evan's ability to choose just the right word is unerring.'
Suzanne O'Sullivan, The Observer
'I loved everything about this book'
Kate Kellaway, The Observer
'Evans's ear for speech suits the monologue, and the monologues - talky, jumpy, Gothic - are intensely atmospheric, claustrophobic pieces... Here, and throughout, Evans catches the nightmarish powerlessness of living close to historical changes.'
John McAuliffe, The Irish Times
'Her ability to replicate on the page colloquial Irish rhythms and phrasing has been commented on before, and it draws the reader in from the beginning... Each poem is, in a sense, akin to a chapter of a novel, and there is narrative drive both within the poems and between them, but as they are poems, i.e. stand-alone entities and in this sense equally analogous to paintings, they serve as much as windows onto moments, thoughts, memories and feelings as narrative blocks.'
Chris Edgoose, Wood Bee Poet
  'Evans' verse is tightly packed with images, but loose enough in its metre to read naturally. One can take the book at a running pace and enjoy a story with deep emotional beats, or slow the pace and reflect on the careful choice of wording.'
Joe Darlington, Manchester Review of Books
  The admired vernacular brilliance of Martina Evans's poetry is applied here to her most ambitious work to date, bringing to vivid life one of the most terrible periods of Irish history from the Troubles around 1920 to the Civil War, as witnessed and experienced by two generations of women ... No other poet currently writing in Britain and Ireland can rival Evans's ability to represent the impact of the political on the personal without easy histrionics. This is a remarkable document, a major work.
Bernard O'Donoghue 'a subtle, challenging writer with a wonderfully destructive approach to the pieties she describes.'
John McAuliffe, Irish Times   'Evan's great skill is in knowing how much to put into a poem. She has a talent for selecting only the most resonant memories, for not over-icing the cake of sentiment. [...] Above all, Evans puts the right words in the right order, a dictum whose simple phrasing embodies its demands.'
Michael Duggan, PN Review 'These look like easy, anecdotal poems but they bite.'
Alan Brownjohn, Sunday Times 'Martina Evans [is] brazenly humorous [...] with her dizzyingly wacky free-verse tale-telling.'
The Tablet

Quote of the Day It is impossible to imagine literary life in Britain without Carcanet. William Boyd Home Events Authors Titles Paperback Hardback Limited Edition Journal CD eBook Audiobook Exact Editions Imprints Anvil Press Poetry Aspects of Portugal Audio CDs Carcanet Classics Carcanet Fiction Carcanet Film Carcanet Poetry FyfieldBooks Lintott Press Little Island Press Lives and Letters Northern House OxfordPoets PN Review Sheep Meadow Press Information About Us Carcanet Celebrates 50 Years! Academic Enquiries Authors for Events Catalogue Contact Us Copyright and Permissions Join Our Mailing List Opportunities at Carcanet Press Enquiries PN Review PN Review Creative Writing Prize Returns Policy Shopping Guide Stocklist Submission Guidelines Trade Information Resources Audio Gallery Reading Group Guides Video
Book Search Search > advanced search Subscribe to our mailing list
Facing the Public Martina Evans Imprint: Anvil Press Poetry Publisher: Carcanet Press Available as: Paperback (64 pages) (Pub. Oct 2009) 9780856464126 Out of Stock Description Excerpt Author Awards Reviews Desperate Men Christmas Day and Good Friday were the only days that the pub closed. And yet they came – trembling strangers, under hats and caps, lapels turned up against the slanting wind or hiding a dog collar. They were desperate. We knew men like them for 363 days of the year apologetic, obsequious and persistent, dark ravens tap tap tapping at our front door. Isn’t it a fright? everyone whispered over the Brussels sprouts, the one day in the year. Wouldn’t you think they would stock up or their wives could ...? I pondered but sshhh in the name of God my mother looked at me as if I was planning my future. You’ll draw them in on top of us, she passed out slices of turkey on tip-toe and we avoided the noise of cutlery on china chewing tensely until we heard the sound of footsteps on gravel again the wind-up growl of an old Escort or Cortina starting up, driving away. 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 … This book will be available again soon Martina Evans grew up in County Cork and trained in Dublin as a radiographer before moving to London in 1988. She is the author of twelve books poetry and prose. She has won several awards including the Premio Ciampi International Prize for Poetry in 2011. Now We Can Talk Openly About ... read more Awards won by Martina Evans Short-listed, 2019 Irish Times Poetry Now Award (Now We Can Talk Openly About Men) Short-listed, 2019 The Pigott Poetry Award (Now We Can Talk Openly About Men) Short-listed, 2019 The Roehampton Poetry Prize (Now We Can Talk Openly About Men) Short-listed, 2015 Irish Times Poetry Now Award (Burnfort, Las Vegas) Winner, 2011 Premio Ciampi Internazionale di Poesia (Ciampi International Poetry Prize) (Facing the Public) 'A deceptively casual and enjoyable collection.' Irish Times Praise for Martina Evans 'Martina Evans keeps the reader in close and constant orbit... It gave me immense pleasure' Megan Fernandes, Poetry Foundation 'Martina Evans' poems are compressed stories, if not entire novels, in all but their word counts. The specimens, none of them overlong, in American Mules jaunt along delightfully, as if spoken into your ear, and they show a particular interest in the details of the everyday - she is the least abstract, least generalising of poets. There is no poetical windbaggery here, more a pleasing companionableness, a grabbing-you-by-the-under-arm and racing you along beside' Michael Glover, The Tablet 'Martina Evans's American Mules, a scintillating poetry collection from a unique, deeply observant, beautifully compassionate consciousness which creates a fully realised world of its own.' Catriona Crowe, The Irish Times 'American Mules by Martina Evans is a glorious collection of poems, two books within one, an astonishment of riches. How she melds narrative audacity with sharp insight and juicy lyricism is so memorable. It's a book that gets into your heart. These poems echo and shimmer' Joseph O'Connor, The Irish Times 'Striking powers of social observation... every single adjective attentively exact... Without straining for effect, she mixes pity with horror - and a repeated theme of fallibility' Fiona Sampson, The Guardian 'Her work is humane and funny, often beautiful, always without sentiment or bitterness... It is loose, chatty and free, awash with hospitals, cats and shoes. For Evans the joy of the given moment, the past's ever-present grief, the dreams of films and books, are frequencies overlapping at once... Evans is that rarest of rara avis, a poet whose work is at once serious and authentically enjoyable... American Mules is a book of splendours and will surely count among her very best.' Conor O'Callaghan, The Irish Times 'Terrifying tales of peace' Kate Clanchy, The Guardian 'Evans's decision to occupy and represent these women in the midst of a period in Irish history which is at once surrounded by silence and overexposed in the long shadow it has cast, leaves us with a work which is compelling, subtle, compassionate and evocative.' Rosie Lavan, Poetry Ireland Review 'A sharply idiomatic reflection of the Irish revolution and Civil War... it is unputdownable'. *Roy Foster, TLS* Books of the Year 2018** 'Totally captivating.' Susan Jane Sims, Artemis Poetry '...a rich poetic contribution to our forthcoming interrogation of the War of independence, two intense and riveting dramatic monologues by women affected by the burning of Mallow in 1920, and the malaise of the new state in 1924.' *Catriona Crowe, The Irish Times* Best Books of 2018 'Evans manages in this collection, like a great filmmaker or novelist, to gift the audience (and I use the word "audience" deliberately) with immersion into a world so real and complete we have to reluctantly drag ourselves back to our fictional lives.' Anne Tannam, The Dublin Review of Books** 'Full of insight and humour...Evan's ability to choose just the right word is unerring.' Suzanne O'Sullivan, The Observer 'I loved everything about this book' Kate Kellaway, The Observer 'Evans's ear for speech suits the monologue, and the monologues - talky, jumpy, Gothic - are intensely atmospheric, claustrophobic pieces... Here, and throughout, Evans catches the nightmarish powerlessness of living close to historical changes.' John McAuliffe, The Irish Times 'Her ability to replicate on the page colloquial Irish rhythms and phrasing has been commented on before, and it draws the reader in from the beginning... Each poem is, in a sense, akin to a chapter of a novel, and there is narrative drive both within the poems and between them, but as they are poems, i.e. stand-alone entities and in this sense equally analogous to paintings, they serve as much as windows onto moments, thoughts, memories and feelings as narrative blocks.' Chris Edgoose, Wood Bee Poet 'Evans' verse is tightly packed with images, but loose enough in its metre to read naturally. One can take the book at a running pace and enjoy a story with deep emotional beats, or slow the pace and reflect on the careful choice of wording.' Joe Darlington, Manchester Review of Books The admired vernacular brilliance of Martina Evans's poetry is applied here to her most ambitious work to date, bringing to vivid life one of the most terrible periods of Irish history from the Troubles around 1920 to the Civil War, as witnessed and experienced by two generations of women ... No other poet currently writing in Britain and Ireland can rival Evans's ability to represent the impact of the political on the personal without easy histrionics. This is a remarkable document, a major work. Bernard O'Donoghue 'a subtle, challenging writer with a wonderfully destructive approach to the pieties she describes.' John McAuliffe, Irish Times 'Evan's great skill is in knowing how much to put into a poem. She has a talent for selecting only the most resonant memories, for not over-icing the cake of sentiment. [...] Above all, Evans puts the right words in the right order, a dictum whose simple phrasing embodies its demands.' Michael Duggan, PN Review 'These look like easy, anecdotal poems but they bite.' Alan Brownjohn, Sunday Times 'Martina Evans [is] brazenly humorous [...] with her dizzyingly wacky free-verse tale-telling.' The Tablet	Share this... Quick Links Carcanet Celebrates 50 Years! Anvil Press Poetry Aspects of Portugal Carcanet Classics Carcanet Fiction Carcanet Film Carcanet Poetry FyfieldBooks Lintott Press Little Island Press Lives and Letters OxfordPoets PN Review Sheep Meadow Press The Carcanet Blog PN Review 260: Editorial read more A Homeric Convention: Robert Wells read more Forty Names: Parwana Fayyaz read more Gregory Woods: Under the Bonnet read more PNR 259: Editorial read more Emily Skillings: Wicked Weather read more
We thank the Arts Council England for their support and assistance in this interactive Project.
Privacy Statement Sitemap RSS Feeds Home Events Authors Titles Imprints Information Resources This website ©2000-2021 Carcanet Press Ltd