Amelia Martens
martensamelia@gmail.com
PUBLICATIONS
BOOK (Poetry)
The Spoons in the Grass are There to Dig a Moat 2016
2014 Linda Bruckheimer Series in Kentucky Literature
Sarabande Books
CHAPBOOKS (Poetry)
- Ursa Minor 2018
2017 Prose Poetry Prize, selected by Lance Larsen
Elsewhere Magazine
- A Series of Faults 2014
Finishing Line Press
- Clatter 2013
Floating Wolf Quarterly
- Purgatory 2012
Fall 2010 Black River Chapbook Competition
Black Lawrence Press
WORKS IN ANTHOLOGY
The Open Page: Poetry, Fiction, & Essays on the Art of Writing 2020
“Bill & Ted’s Excellent (poem) Adventure”
Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing
POETRY PAMPHLET
Praise These Days 2019
Blue Satellite Press, Poetry Pamphlet Series, Millikin University
Limited edition letterpress pamphlet featuring three poems:
“Feathers Pile on Concrete”, “My Daughter Turns Oil into Magic”,
“When Nothing Happens at School”
BROADSIDE
“American Commute, 2019” 2019
Jacar Press Broadside, Contest on Identity
Selected by Nickole Brown and Jessica Jacobs
INDIVIDUAL FLASH FICTION
StoryQuarterly, Issue 53: “Some Survive and Others Do Not” 2021
Third Wednesday, Vol. XII: “We Can’t Save What We Keep”
George Dila Memorial Fiction Contest – Honorable Mention 2019
INDIVIDUAL CREATIVE NONFICTION
F3LL Magazine, Winter Issue: “The Age of Deoxygenation” 2022
storySouth: “When My Nine-Year-Old Daughter Asks Me to Explain Tear Gas:
An All Day Conversation” 2020
INDIVIDUAL POEMS
Hole in the Head Review: “Mid-Winter, Far West Kentucky”
Charles Simic Memorial Prize – Finalist 2024
Still: The Journal: “Staying Found”, “Second Daughter” 2023
Sweet: A Literary Confection: “Suppose It’s Not Your Road”, “How About Bears” 2022
Periodicities: Twenty-Eight Short Takes on the Prose Poem: “All Birds Are Eatable”
“Men Make Animals React Dangerously” 2022
Still: The Journal: “Pandemic December”, “Updated Dream Songs”
“The Science of Going Light”, “Updated Dream Songs, 2” 2021
Southern Indiana Review: “Because There Will Always Be People You Don’t
Get Along With”, “Pandemic April” 2020
Red Tree Review: “On a Planet Called Earth”, “The Seismologist Makes Beds” 2020
How We Are: “The End of May” 2020
Cream City Review: “Swarms of Grasshoppers Invade Las Vegas” 2020
Alien Magazine: “Dear People of the Near Future (We gendered our planet…)” 2020
SWWIM Every Day: “You Pick Out Your Feminist Icon Dress For School Again” 2020
ONE: “American Commute, 2019” 2019
ALIVE Magazine: “A Spaghetti That Grows on Trees” 2019
The American Journal of Poetry: “Suppose You Have No Gun”, “Weapons for
Group”, “Dear People of the Near Future (Please follow directions…)”,
“Dear People of the Near Future (We were illiterate…)”, 2019
Hunger Mountain, Silence + Power Issue: “Morning Walk: September 11, 2018” 2019
Cave Wall: “Sanctuaries Dissolve in Sepia Sunsets” 2019
The Laurel Review: “The 3 Properties of Wool”, “Making a Death Pit” 2018
Plume: “Cooking in Ashes” 2018
Pidgeonholes: “And Stephen Hawking is dead and we will bomb…”,
“And Stephen Hawking is dead, but the whale…”, “And Stephen
Hawking is dead and a pedestrian…” 2018
The Fairy Tale Review: “Still in the 21st Century”, “Disaster Doesn’t Have to
be Spectacular” 2018
Tinderbox Poetry Journal: “ Upon Falling Through Ice”, “Determining Direction
by Sun Alone”, “When Woods are Wet” 2018
Medium, Spotlight #17: “A Fat Baby Chews Plastic”, “Dear People of the Near
Future (We do not yet have…)” 2017
Diode, Vol. 10: “Every time They Hear a Helicopter”, “Early in the 21st Century” 2017
The Indianapolis Review: “Dear People of the Near Future (Think of us as tired…)
“Dear People of the Near Future (All the scientists…)” 2017
Ninth Letter, Southern Writers Web Edition: “PB & J”, “Before the Games Begin”, “Sewn” 2017
Tinderbox Poetry Journal: “The Little Girl and the Bear Work a Puzzle of the Earth” 2017
Southern Humanities Review: “The Apology”, “Postcard from The End” 2016
The American Journal of Poetry: “After the Fedora”, “On Earth”, “The Ocean Bank” 2016
New Flash Fiction Review, Prose Poem Issue-Selected by Nin Andrews:
“Some Day We Will Be Scientists or Farmers” 2016
Plume: “Marathon”, “Shoreline” 2016
South Dakota Review: “Already at War”, “We Will Be Long Gone”, “Free Time” 2016
The Hampden-Sydney Poetry Review: “Pre-Alice”, “A Field”
“Eyelashes as Stitches”, “Primitive Oceans” 2015
pacificREVIEW: “Tuesday”, “Forecast” 2015
Squalorly: “Pink Pigs and Orange Horses”, “Collection” 2015
Iron Horse Literary Review: “Baggage” 2013
Willow Springs: “Because I am in the Junkyard” 2013
Bellingham Review: “Arrival”, “Teaching His Daughters” 2012
The Chattahoochee Review: “A Hundred Miles From the Border”, “In the Land of Milk” 2012
Folio: “Waking Up With Thoughts of How to Blow up America” 2012
Crab Creek Review: “When the Incredible Shrinking Woman Gets Caught
In the Garbage Disposal” 2011
Big Muddy: A Journal of the Mississippi River Valley: “Lincoln at his 200th Birthday” 2011
Whiskey Island: “The Doppelganger’s Daughter Gets Her First EKG” 2011
Epicenter: “The Doppelganger’s Daughter Takes Down Christmas Lights”,
“The Doppelganger’s Daughter Left Her First Husband” 2009
pacificREVIEW: “In the Kingdom of Calm” 2009
Connecticut Review: “Sitting Ducks” 2008
The Madison Review: “Letter From the Bottom of the World” 2007
Slipstream: “Yesterday Another Airplane, “Captured” 2007
Kudzu: “Son of Superman”, “Afternoon Thunderstorms” 2007
SELECTED AWARDS, GRANTS & FELLOWSHIPS
- Kentucky Foundation for Women, Residency at Loretto Community 2024
- Kentucky Foundation for Women, Artist Enrichment Grant 2021
- The Kentucky Arts Council, Al Smith Individual Artist Fellowship 2019
- Rivendell Writers’ Colony, Sustainable Arts Fellowship 2017
- Kentucky Foundation for Women, Artist Enrichment Grant 2016
- The Kentucky Arts Council, Emerging Artist Award 2011
- Indiana University, The Booth Tarkington Thesis Year Fellowship 2006-7
- Indiana University, The Yusef Komunyakaa Fellowship in Creative Writing 2004-6
SELECTED CONFERENCES, TALKS, & READINGS
- Kentucky State Poetry Society Conference, Publishing Panel with Marianne Chan,
Dorian Hairston, Jon Thrower, & Katerina Stoykova Oct. 2024
- Western Kentucky University Visiting Writers Series, with Danni Quintos Sept. 2022
- My Old Kentucky Podcast, with Robert Kahne July 2022
- Indiana University Writers’ Conference, Featured Reader June 2022
- Hurricane Visiting Writers Series, Jasper County High School April 2022
- Middle Tennessee State University, Reading & Class Lecture Sept. 2021
- Elsewhere MicroPress Reading with Ori Fienberg & Brendan Walsh June 2021
- Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing, Poetry Instructor June 2021
- Wor-Wic Community College, Echoes & Visions Reading April 2021
- SLO Radio Collective, Transmission Art Performance Nov. 2020
- Spalding at 21c: Voice and Vision Series with Lilly Cary, Dorian Hairston, Silas House, Jason Kyle Howard, & Gabe Tomlin July 2020
- McCracken County Public Library, An Evening with Local Writers April 2020
- Sundress Reading Series , Featured Reader Feb. 2020
- C.D. Wright Women Writers Conference, panelist “Strange Horizons: A Feminist Speculative Poetry Reading” Nov. 2019
- Kentucky State Poetry Society, Annual Conference, reading & panel Oct. 2019
- The Bluegrass Bookend Interview Oct. 2019
- Brescia University, St. Ann Visiting Writers Series, Featured Reader March 2019
- Paducah School of Art & Design, 2019 Al Smith KY Arts Fellowship Reading with Pamela Parker Feb. 2019
- Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing, Poetry Instructor June 2018
- InKY Reading Series, Featured with Leesa Cross-Smith May 2018
- Millikin University, Millikan Literary Festival, Poetry Instructor Nov. 2017
- University of Cincinnati Clermont, Craft Talk & Reading Oct. 2017
- Carnegie Center’s Kentucky Great Writers Series Reading Oct. 2017
- Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing, Poetry Instructor June 2017
- Open Books: A Poem Emporium, Prose Poem Workshop June 2017
- Left Bank Books, Reading with Robert Long Foreman April 2017
- Monster Mags of the Midwest Reading (AWP Off-site) Feb. 2017
- Kentucky Writer’s Block, “Crossing Boundaries” Panel & Reading Nov. 2016
- Transylvania University, Reading & Craft Talk Nov. 2016
- Teen Howl Poetry Series, 5 Year Celebration, Featured Reader Nov. 2016
- The Southern Festival of Books, “Exhilarating Highs and Terrifying Lows: Two Poets” with Tina Parker Oct. 2016
- Page & Palette Reading (Fairhope, AL.) Oct. 2016
- River City Revue Reading Sept. 2016
- Hopkinsville Community College, Hoptown Lecture Sept. 2016
- Spalding at 21c: Voice & Vision Reading Sept. 2016
- University of Alabama at Huntsville, Reading & Print Show with Artist Michael Crouse Sept. 2016
- Nitty Gritty Magic City Reading Series Sept. 2016
- Murray State University, Low Residency MFA “Art of the Chapbook” Panel & Reading July 2016
- Malaprop’s Bookstore, Poetrio Reading July 2016
- Pages & Pints Summer Poetry Sampler Reading June 2016
- Indiana University Writers’ Conference, Poetry Class Instructor June 2016
- Fountain Square Poetry Series June 2016
- Holler Poets Series Reading May 2016
- Porchlight Coffee, Prose Poem Group Reading May 2016
- Queen Anne Book Company, Reading with Hannah Faith Notess April 2016
- Indiana University, Undergrad Poetry Workshop Craft Talk April 2016
- Southern Kentucky Book Fest, Panel “Laying it On the Line” with Kathleen Driskell, Leatha Kendrick, Jane Olmsted, & Tom Hunley April 2016
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Paducah Art Alliance – Board Member 2019 – Present
Black Lawrence Press- Chapbook Panel Judge 2014 – Present
Kentucky State Poetry Society – President 2020 – 2022
Exit 7: A Journal of Literature & Art – Associate & Reviews Editor 2012 – 2021
Rivertown Reading Series – Co-Founder & Series Curator 2009 – 2021
Kentucky State Poetry Society – Vice President 2019 – 2020
EDUCATION
Indiana University, Bloomington, IN. – Master of Science: Literacy, Culture, & Language Education, 2013
Indiana University, Bloomington, IN. – Master of Fine Arts: Creative Writing, Poetry, 2007
University of California at Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA. – Bachelor of Arts: English, 2002
Ventura Community College, Ventura, CA. – Associate of Arts: English Concentration, 2000
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
West Kentucky Community & Technical College, Paducah, KY. – Assistant Professor
Aug. 2020 – Jan. 2022
West Kentucky Community & Technical College, Paducah, KY. – Instructor
Aug. 2017 – July. 2020
West Kentucky Community & Technical College, Paducah, KY. – Adjunct Instructor
Aug. 2007 – May 2017
WKCTC Courses Taught:
ENC 90: Foundations of College Writing I
ENC 91: Foundations of College Writing II
ENG 101: Writing 1: Composition
ENG 102: Writing 2: Composition
ENG 207: Creative Writing: Poetry and Fiction
ENG 252: Survey of American Literature II
FYE 105: Achieving Academic Success
HUM 120: Introduction to the Humanities
RDG 20: Improved College Reading
RDG 30: Reading for the College Classroom
References
Maurice Manning
Professor of English; Transylvania Writer in Residence
Transylvania University
859-233-8606
Bob Bledsoe
Director, Indiana University Writers’ Conference
Indiana University, Bloomington
812- 855-1877
Romayne Rubinas Dorsey
Creative Writing Pedagogy Director and Senior Lecturer
Indiana University
812-855-4038
Amelia Martens 