Martina began writing in 1990 and has published four books of poetry and three novels. Her first novel, Midnight Feast, won a Betty Trask Award in 1995 and her third novel, No Drinking No Dancing No Doctors (Bloomsbury, 2000), won an Arts Council England Award in 1999. Her fourth poetry collection, Facing the Public was published by Anvil Press in September 2009 and has won bursary awards from both the Irish Arts Council (An Chomhairle Eiraíon) and Arts Council England.
Her poetry has appeared in many magazines and newspapers both in the UK as well as Ireland and the US and she is a popular performer of her work, giving readings in Ireland, the UK and elsewhere, including the Shanghai Literature Festival in 2011. She has frequently spoken and performed on BBC Radio and Irish radio.
Martina has judged the London Arts Board Awards, the London Metropolitan Creative Writing Competition for two years as well as the Listowel Irish Post Short Story Competition for three consecutive years. She has written for The Irish Post, The Irish Times and The Guardian and she has been children's books reviewer for the Irish Post since 2000.
She has been Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Queen Mary, University of London from 2003-2007 and then again 2011/12. She has designed and directed a creative writing summer school at London Metropolitan University and run workshops at various literary festivals, including the Advanced Poetry Workshop at Listowel Writers' Week in Ireland in 2009 and 2010. She has been visiting poet at at the National Film and Television School and ran 'Film and Fiction' workshops at the 7th Geneva Writers' Conference in February 2010. She has taught at the University of East London and at Centreprise Literature Development Project. Currently, she teaches creative writing at the City Literary Institute, at Kingston University and on tutored retreats for the Arvon Foundation. Her specialist workshops include 'Where Poetry Meets Film' and 'Journey with Joyce'.
Martina (aged 14) with Fifi and Tom's car