Katrina Naomi is a poet based in south London and is originally from Margate. Katrina's first full collection 'The Girl with the Cactus Handshake' was shortlisted for the inaugural London Festival Fringe New Poetry Award 2010. The book (which received an Arts Council England writer's award) was published in 2009 by Templar Poetry, priced at £9.99 and is available now.

'Naomi’s poems often establish surprising contexts from which to explore the intimate codes of relationships. The farmer’s boy is up and away or a woman recollects lying on the floor of a pub with a man while her partner watches. 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 LondonFestival Fringe New Poetry Award (Daljit Nagra, Tamar Yosselof, Adam O'Riordan) on 'The Girl with the Cactus Handshake'

You can read more about the book, see comments from the poets Roddy Lumsden, Todd Swift and Anne-Marie Fyfe, among others, and find out where to purchase a copy in the Publications section of this site - simply click on the link below. Many congratulations to Carrie Etter, who won the Award, with her collection 'The Tethers'.

Katrina is the first Writer in Residence at the Bronte Parsonage Museum in Haworth, Yorkshire. The Bronte Society has just published (April 2010) a pamphlet of Katrina's poems, 'Charlotte Bronte's Corset', which has been very well received. This new pamphlet is available directly from Katrina Get in touch as well as from the Bronte Parsonage Museum (www.bronte.info or tel 01535 640188) and costs £4.99.

Her pamphlet 'Lunch at the Elephant & Castle' is also available. This won the 2008 Templar Poetry Competition. Read comments from the poets James Byrne, Michael Laskey and Julia Bird (the latter in 'Poetry London) on this book, and see its availability in the Publications section of this site - simply click on the link below.  

Katrina was Writer in Residence at Hartlepool Art Gallery from mid-March to the end of May 2010.

She received an Arts Council England writer's award for 2008-9 and a Hawthornden Fellowship in 2009. Katrina was shortlisted in the 2009 Bridport Prize, runner-up in the 2009 Stanza Competition, commended in the 2010 Ware Poetry Competition and the 2009 Poetry on the Lake Competition. In 2008 she won the Templar Poetry Competition and the Ledbury Poetry Festival Text Poem Contest. Katrina has an MA in Creative and Life Writing from Goldsmiths and is beginning to study for a M Phil/PhD at Goldsmiths in September 2010.  
 
News, Readings and Events:
Oxfam has recently issued 'Asking a Shadow to Dance: 35 Young British Poets for Oxfam', which features Katrina's poetry along with the work of many great poets. The DVD is available on ebay and from Oxfam Bookshops, priced at £12.99.

Katrina will be perfoming at at Arvon, Lumb Bank and at the Bronte Festival of Women's Writing in Haworth in September, and at the Essex Poetry Festival in London and Southend in October. In January 2011, Katrina will be returning to Poetry Wivenhoe.

See the EVENTS section of this website for details of forthcoming readings in London and elsewhere.

Katrina has recently performed her work at the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival, the Derwent Poetry Festival, the Essex Poetry Festival, at London's Poetry Cafe and Troubadour Cafe, among many other venues.

Get in touch if you'd like to book me to read.

publications

POETRY

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© Katrina Naomi 2009. All rights reserved.