Courtesy Photo
Philip Martin, an award-winning journalist and musician, is the featured reader for the Ozark Poets and Writers Collective this Tuesday, Sept. 27, at Nightbird Books. The event begins at 7 p.m. sharp and is free to the public.
Film critic and newspaper columnist Philip Martin is always working at it. You know, tapping in notes on his cell phone, scribbling out ideas in a notebook, pouring over a passage in a poem. A career writer and musician, the hard work has certainly paid off.
Martin has won more than 40 regional and national awards for his columns at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, has authored three books, co-authored a fourth, and has even recorded three albums.
“It’s constant,” Martin says of his work. “A career in journalism either turned me into an inveterate eavesdropper or my natural inclinations led me to this career.”
Martin is the featured reader this Tuesday, Sept. 27, at Nightbird Books. The event, hosted by the Ozark Poets and Writers Collective, begins at 7 p.m. sharp and is free to the public. An open mic will take place before and after Martin is featured.
Martin says he plans on reading the room before deciding on what to perform. But he’s bringing his guitar so expect at least a couple of songs, and he’ll probably recite poetry inspired by his newspaper work – what some people have called his “murder ballad” poems.
“Since I gave up any hope of playing third base for the Boston Red Sox, I’ve wanted to be a writer, and specifically a newspaper columnist,” he said. “I don’t pretend I’ve been anything but lucky. But all of this – my journalism, my music, my poetry and the visual stuff I do – seems to come from the same place. It’s really just what I do.”
Martin is best known as the chief film critic and a columnist for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Martin has worked for the newspaper since 1993, covering a wide variety of topics, including politics and sports, but he is primarily known as a cultural critic. He has written two books of essays, The Shortstop’s Son and The Artificial Southerner, and, with Rex Nelson, a biography of Hillary Clinton, The Hillary Factor.
His latest book, The President Next Door: Poems, Songs and Journalism, has just been published by Et Alia Press.
Martin is also a songwriter who won the 1981 Kentucky Fried Chicken National Songwriting contest, which led to an appearance on The Merv Griffin Show. He has released two albums of original music, Gastonia (2013) and Euclid Avenue (2014) on his own label, Strangepup Records. Dog Justice, his third album, is scheduled for release in late 2016.
Martin lives in Little Rock’s Hillcrest neighborhood with his wife (and editor) Karen, and three rescued terriers.
