I’m a Portland writer/artist
creating modern folk art
& whatever the hell I want
My Work
My work started with creating zines in 2003. Being part of the zine community led to creating illustrations, collages, and writing three memoirs on health, sex, and work.
Sorry I Was Gone
What if the worst thing that ever happened to you was also the funniest? Sorry I Was Gone exposes to absurdity the arbitrary metrics by which we judge our lives.
Support my work
I’m a working Portland artist, and I rely on Patreon subscribers so I can keep creating artwork. My subscribers receive zines, illustrations, essays, and poetry. Depending on your subscription level, you’ll even receive a twenty percent off code for everything in my online shop!
What
people say
about my writing
“I devoured Martha Grover’s End of My Career on the plane. Frank, funny, sad at times—beautifully observed. It doesn’t matter what she writes, I’m gonna want to read it. She’s that kind of writer.”
—Jeff Vandermeer, NYT Bestselling author of Borne and The Southern Reach Trilogy
“Grover takes the decidedly mundane and rotates in the light of her dead-aim wit.”
—Maggie Nelson, Award-winning author of Bluets and The Argonauts
“With immense vulnerability, wit and insight, [Martha Grover] writes about so much—money, sex, chronic illness.”
—Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild and Tiny Beautiful Things
What people have said
about my portraits
"That doesn't look like me."
"My mom didn't like it."
"You made me look too beautiful."
"I look like I have chin hair in that drawing."
Out in the world
Sorry I Was Gone was mentioned in The Paris Review’s Contributor’s Favorite Books of 2021.
“Only Connect: On The End of My Career by Martha Grover.” Los Angeles Review of Books, 2018.
“Martha Grover’s Messy Lives: The End of My Career Author Is the Voice of Portland Right Now.” Portland Mercury, 2016.
“‘One More for the People’: Martha Grover’s Illuminating Essays.” SFWeekly, 2012.
Interview and reading on IPRC’s podcast, The Staple, 2017.
Interview with 11 PDX Magazine, 2016.
If you would like a full list of media, please contact me.