About Katrina and her work:

Katrina Naomi is a poet based in south London and is originally from Margate. Her first full collection, 'The Girl with the Cactus Handshake' (Templar Poetry), was shortlisted for the London New Poetry Award and received an Arts Council England writer's award.

'Allusions and an acute psychological interrogation make the poems incisive and unpredictable and keep us on our toes for the possible mischief ahead. This arresting and vivid first collection is full of dark humour and affectionate address to dark circumstances.' (The judges of the 2010 London New Poetry Award - Daljit Nagra, Tamar Yoseloff, Adam O'Riordan - on 'The Girl with the Cactus Handshake'.)

You can read more about the book and see comments and reviews from the poets Roddy Lumsden, Todd Swift and Anne-Marie Fyfe, among others. The book is £9.99 and is available directly from Katrina get in touch

Katrina was the first Writer in Residence at the Bronte Parsonage Museum in Haworth, Yorkshire. 'Charlotte Bronte's Corset' is a collection of her Bronte-themed poems written during the residency (published by the Bronte Society, 2010). See comments from the novelist Barbara Trapido, among others. The book is available directly from Katrina get in touch or from the Bronte Parsonage Museum (www.bronte.info or tel 01535 640188) and costs £4.99.

Her pamphlet 'Lunch at the Elephant & Castle' (£4) won the 2008 Templar Poetry Competition. Read comments from the poets James Byrne, Michael Laskey and Julia Bird on this book, or get in touch to buy a copy.  

See the Events section of this website for news and information on where Katrina will next be reading or running a workshop.

Katrina has performed at the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival, the Bronte Festival of Women's Writing, the Essex Poetry Festival and StAnza International Poetry Festival, among others. She is in her second year of a PhD on Creative Writing at Goldsmiths, her research is on violence in poetry, looking at the work of Sharon Olds, Pascale Petit, Peter Redgrove and Robin Robertson.

She teaches poetry and creative writing for the Poetry School, Goldsmiths and the Open University. She has been Writer in Residence at Hartlepool Art Gallery, working with local groups, and an installation of her poems was displayed in the town. Her poetry has also been performed as part of an operatic song cycle at London's Festival Hall, and she has collaborated with a sound artist to produce a collaborative art/poetry event about Brixton.

Katrina received a Hawthornden Fellowship in 2009, has won the Templar Poetry Competition and the Ledbury Poetry Festival Text Poetry Competition. She has been shortlisted for the Bridport Prize among many other competitions.


Get in touch if you'd like to book Katrina to read or run a workshop.

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