meet the author
frank martyn
frank martyn is a belfast poet whose work moves between poetry, fiction, music, video and live performance
his poetry has appeared in irish, u.k. and international literary publications including the blue nib, dreich, stand magazine, the belfast review, ink sweat & tears, london grip, new contrast and the irish centre of poetic studies
he won the matrix poetry prize in 2017 and has independently published several chapbooks and pamphlets – he has performed extensively across the north of ireland and participated in the northern soul roadshow, facilitated by the irish writers centre
his work has also been performed at literary and arts events across belfast and the north of ireland, including the bounce festival at the seamus heaney centre at queens 2024 & 2025, the sailortown festival 2025 and the look north festival 2025 & 2026
alongside his own work, almost exclusively within his signatre ‘organic sonnet’ form, he publishes and supports emerging poets through button press
a poet’s novella
alone comes from the same place as much of martyn’s poetry – an interest in the unstable territory between perception, memory, language and meaning
it is a novella written from a poet’s relationship with language – associative, rhythmic, image-driven and deliberately sustained at a high register
alone grew from more than three months of delusions across two admissions, compressed into a single harrowing day
the book does not attempt to reproduce those experiences literally – instead, it transforms them into a genre-defiant novella – psychosis becomes mythology, memory becomes belfast, objects become symbols, and private experience expands into questions about history, politics, religion, love and reality
can you susatin it?
the world around alone
poetry
poetry has been part of martyn’s practice since the late 1990s
music
a singer, guitarist, bassist and songwriter, he has collaborated most recently with musicians on work that combines original music and poetry
performance
he curates poetry events and open mics in multiple arts venues throughout belfast
independent publishing
he continues to pubish chapbooks and pamphlets by emerging poets as part of the continuing work of button press
a book that took years
alone wasn’t written in a rush
the work grew out of years of writing, poetry, revision and performance
an earlier version of the novella reached seventh draft in 2015 – the book subsequently went through further development, and work began on an eighth draft in 2025 after ten years of poetic practice
2015 – an earlier version reaches seventh draft
2025 – the eighth draft begins after ten years of poetic development
2026 – alone is published by button press.
alone is not the beginning of the story, it’s the point where several poetic mythologies meet
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