Katrina
Naomi
Katrina Naomi was born and raised in Margate, Kent and lives in Cornwall, UK.
Her new collaborative book, Same But Different, written with Helen Mort, is out on 30 September (Hazel Press).
Her third full collection, Wild Persistence, for which she received an Authors’ Foundation award, was published in June 2020 by Seren .
Katrina’s poetry has been published in The TLS, on Poems on the Underground and broadcast on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row. She was the first writer-in-residence at the Bronte Parsonage Museum.
She holds a PhD in Creative Writing from Goldsmiths (her research is on violence in contemporary poetry). Katrina tutors for Arvon, the Poetry School and Ty Newydd, and runs Poetry Surgeries for the Poetry Society. is
Katrina performs her poetry internationally, including in the US, Japan and Mexico. She made her first podcast with the US-based Love Your Enthusiasm in 2020.
Katrina has just won the 2021 Keats-Shelley Prize. She was shortlisted for the 2021 Alpine Fellowships Writing Prize, and highly commended in the Forward Prizes. Her second collection, The Way the Crocodile Taught Me, was a #FoylesFive for Poetry and her debut pamphlet won the 2008 Templar Competition.
She has received commissions from the BBC, Imperial College and the Turner Contemporary, and residencies at the Arnolfini, Gladstone’s Library and the Leach Pottery. She is judging the 2021 Stanza Competition for the Poetry Society.
Katrina is chair of the Society of Authors’ Poetry & Spoken Word Group.
Latest Blog Post:
Katrina Wins 2021 Keats-Shelley Prize
Katrina Naomi wins the Keats-Shelley Poetry Prize with her poem ‘in the kelp forest’
Upcoming Diary Event:
Festival Internacional Poesia Caracol, Tijuana, Mexico
Katrina will be reading her poetry and work in translation, in Spanish and English. Note: the event will be mostly in Spanish
Short & Sweet Newsletter
If you’d like to know about Katrina’s forthcoming events, workshops, performances etc, sign up to her monthly poetry newsletter, ‘short & sweet’.
You’ll be joining over 550 subscribers who receive info on opportunities for writers and Katrina’s mini review of a new poetry collection, all in ‘short & sweet’, each month.
Books
Wild Persistence
Wild Persistence (Seren, 2020), is Katrina’s first collection since moving to Cornwall. Helen Mort says Wild Persistence is ‘Funny, moving, surprising, unflinching and, above all else…joyous’.
Typhoon etiquette
Typhoon Etiquette (Verve Poetry Press, 2019), a Japan-themed collection, was written during a six-week stay in Japan, working on an Arts Council/British Council-funded trip.
The Way the Crocodile Taught Me
Katrina Naomi’s The Way the Crocodile Taught Me (Seren, 2016), her second full collection, was chosen by Foyles Bookshop as one of its #FoylesFive for poetry.
The Girl with the Cactus Handshake
Katrina’s first full collection, The Girl with the Cactus Handshake, (Templar Poetry, 2009), was shortlisted for the London New Poetry Award and received an Arts Council Award.
Hooligans
Hooligans, (Rack Press, 2015) was inspired by the Suffragettes and written during a residency at Gladstone’s Library. It is Rack Press’s best-selling pamphlet.
Charlotte Bronte’s Corset
Katrina was the first writer-in-residence at the Bronte Parsonage Museum, which resulted in the pamphlet Charlotte Bronte’s Corset (Bronte Society, 2010).
Lunch at the Elephant & Castle
Katrina won the Templar Poetry Competition, with her pamphlet, Lunch at the Elephant & Castle (Templar Poetry, 2008).