Amelia Martens

Poet

Paducah, KY
Kentucky US

Author's Bio

AMELIA MARTENS is the author of The Spoons in the Grass are There To Dig a Moat (2016), a book of prose poems, selected by Sarabande Books for the 2014 Linda Bruckheimer Series in Kentucky Literature. She received both an MFA in Creative Writing and an MS in Literacy, Culture, and Language Education from Indiana University. Her work has been supported by a 2019 Al Smith Individual Artist Fellowship from the Kentucky Arts Council, two Artist Enrichment Grants from the Kentucky Foundation for Women, and an Emerging Artist Grant from the Kentucky Arts Council in 2011. She is a recent Pushcart nominee and the author of four poetry chapbooks:  Ursa Minor (winner of the 2017 Prose Poetry Prize from elsewhere magazine, 2018), A Series of Faults (Finishing Line Press, 2014), Clatter (Floating Wolf Quarterly, 2013), and Purgatory (winner of the Spring 2010 Black River Chapbook competition; Black Lawrence Press, 2012). Her new poems appear, or are forthcoming in: Cave Wall,  Pidgeonholes, Plume, Diode, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, and Ninth Letter. She is married to the poet Britton Shurley; they have two smart/beautiful/brave daughters and a ridiculous dog. 

Publications & Prizes

Book:
The Spoons in the Grass are There to Dig a Moat (Sarabande Books, 2016)
Chapbooks:
A Series of Faults (Finishing Line Press, 2014)
,
Purgatory (Black Lawrence Press, 2012)
Prizes won: 

2019 Al Smith Individual Artist Fellowship from the Kentucky Arts Council, 2021 Artist Enrichment Grant from the Kentucky Foundation for Women, 2017 Prose Poetry Prize from Elsewhere Magazine, 2017 Sustainable Arts Fellowship to Rivendell Writer's Colony, 2016 Artist Enrichment Grant from the Kentucky Foundations for Women, 2014 Linda Bruckheimer Series in Kentucky Literature, Sarabande Books; Spring 2010 Black River Chapbook competition, Black Lawrence Press; 2010 Emerging Artist Grant from the Kentucky Arts Council.

More Information

Gives readings: 
Yes
Travels for readings: 
Yes
Prefers to work with: 
Any
Fluent in: 
English
Born in: 
WA
Washington
Raised in: 
Ventura, CA
California
Please note: All information in the Directory is provided by the listed writers or their representatives.
Last update: Mar 09, 2022