Introducing Martin Grey and 'The Prettyboys of Gangster Town'

Delighted to introduce Martin Grey as a 2020 poet! Martin is an experienced and active Nottingham based poet and event organiser who performs extensively across the Midlands, the Edinburgh Fringe and Berlin, winning the 2018 Southwell Folk Festival Slam.

He has supported several nationally renowned poets, including Jess Green and Dominic Berry.

This collection was easy to fall in love with. Honest, hard-hitting, understated and with an endearing style of writing. '

The Prettyboys of Gangster Town' is set to be released in September 2020.

"I need to pay you back, I need to”

ding,

she fires at me, suddenly, my attempts at kindness bouncing

off the half unzipped caves where her neck should be"

Martin Grey said...

I didn’t initially write these poems to be a collection. I wrote them to help me through a very difficult time, before realising I’d been consistently writing about the same core themes. The Prettyboys of Gangster Town is about the connections we attempt to form in powerful moments, from the hopeful to the helpless, and how they change as we’re distanced from them by time, circumstance and by growing out of 'masculinity'. The poems are strongly influenced by poets who say more with what isn’t said than with the words themselves, Mike Garry, Andrew McMillan, Richey Edwards, but also by works whose words really dig below the skin, such as Chokey by Rosy Carrick. My words also owe a lot to many Nottingham poets, especially the DIY Poets, who have spent years gently nudging my writing along in workshops, intervals and afternoons spent sharing poems. I’m thrilled to be releasing my first collection with Fly on the Wall and hope you’ll get as much from it as I have.

Many a link to follow and support Martin Grey on!

martingreypoet.com instagram.com/martin_grey_poet facebook.com/martingreypoet youtube.com/martingreypoet diypoets.com facebook.com/worldjampoetryandmusic/

Keep your eye out for September 2020 because this is going to be a belter!