“This is the sort of poetry that gives poetry a good name”
– John Glenday
“Brilliant movement within the poems with fascinating use of the white space of the page.”
– Sarah Howe, Fiona Sampson, Moniza Alvi, Judges of Rebecca Swift Women Poets Prize on shortlisting
“Maria Isakova Bennett’s poems are otherworldly. They take you into a dream-space that is rich with emotion – into landscapes that are so close you can taste them. But there is always an agreeable tease – nothing is settled, everything unravels, there is always more to the story.”
– Bill Greenwell
“... elevates the quiet contemplation of a series of artworks into something akin to a religious experience.” – Noel Williams, Reviews Editor, Orbis on …an ache in each welcoming kiss
“This intensely lyrical sequence of poems shapes sculpture into words – vivid, accessible, compelling, but most of all humane.”
– John Glenday on All of the Spaces
A poet and artist, Maria Isakova Bennett lives in Liverpool.
Her writing has been published across the UK and Ireland and she has received prizes, been placed, and shortlisted in international poetry competitions. She is the winner of the Poetry Society’s 2020 Peggy Poole Award. She was awarded first place by Fiona Benson in the Teignmouth Poetry Prize and by Clare Pollard in Ver International Poetry Prize, and second place by Helen Mort in Winchester Poetry Competition.
Maria was long-listed in the National Poetry Competitions in 2019 and 2020. In 2017, she was the recipient of a Northern Writers' Award for poetry, and in November 2018 was Poet and Artist-in-Residence at Poetry in Aldeburgh. She has five pamphlets: an o an x (Hazel Press, 2023), Painting the Mersey in 17 Canvases (Hazel Press, 2022), … an ache in each welcoming kiss (Maytree Press, 2019), All of the Spaces (Eyewear, 2018) and Caveat (Poetry Bus, 2015).
In August 2017 she launched the handmade poetry journal Coast to Coast to Coast, publishing work by almost 100 writers in 600 hand-stitched journals across seven issues. Through the initiative, she has launched individual poet journals, led collaborative cross-disciplinary projects and has hosted readings at sites of architectural and cultural interest.
Following post-graduate studies in Art History, Fine Art and Education, she was awarded a distinction MA in Creative Writing in 2012.
Maria is writer in residence for The Life Rooms, (Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust), works as a tutor for The Windows Project. She is Book Reviews Editor for Orbis.