The Windows of Graceland

From the winner of the Betty Trask Award and the Premio Ciampi International Prize for Poetry comes a collection which explores a 1960s Catholic upbringing in Cork, Ireland, set against the backdrop of Graceland and the poet's love for the music of Elvis Presley. Drawing on Evans' first five collections, The Windows of Graceland also delves into the dark recesses of Ireland's past and the violent atrocities committed by the Black and Tans, the IRA and the Easter Uprising. A leading voice in Irish literature, Martina Evans continues to drive right through to the emotional core of her readers with these sharp and compelling poems.

Martina Evans was born in 1961, the youngest of ten children, and grew up in County Cork. After training as a radiographer in Dublin she moved to London in 1988. Her first collection of poems, The Inniscarra Bar and Cycle Rest, appeared in 1995 and was followed by three further collections, All Alcoholics are Charmers (1998), Can Dentists Be Trusted? (2004) and Facing the Public (2009).