So much news I don’t know where to start…
FICTION
I’m very excited to start this blogpost with news that my flash fiction The Crown has won second prize in the Arundel Literary Festival Flash Fiction Competition 2024. My thanks to the organisers and this year’s judge, Tracy Fells. The full results for this and the poetry competition can be found here (scroll down to the Competitions section).
Big thanks too to National Flash Fiction Day anthology editors Karen Jones and Sara Hills for selecting my flash The Piano in the Room for this year’s AIR, EARTH, WATER AND FIRE themed anthology. National Flash Fiction Day is on 15 June this year and details of the anthology line-up can be found here.
POETRY
Massive thanks again also to the judges, selectors and those involved in the administration for various poetry prizes and publications that I’ve had good news about recently.
I’m delighted to share that my poem Bluebell Blue is joint runner-up in the Pre-Raphaelite Society Poetry Competition 2023!
Another poem has also just been longlisted in the Black Cat Press Nature Competition 2024!
I’m very pleased too to have my poem Not Entirely Whole Now (Fountains Abbey, HG4 3DY) included on the Lancaster Litfest Histories Map.
POETRYFILM
I didn’t have time to blog about my poetryfilm Mâché (from my Verve collection Blood Sugar, Sex, Magic) being part of StAnza On Screen 2024 earlier, but many of you saw through my events page and social media.
I know lots of you also went across to watch it and like/vote for it online. But I’ve heard that some had problems with the liking part, as YouTube required a sign-in, plus in some cases multiple confirm email details, verification codes, change your email password… My parents had this, and, of course, I wouldn’t ask anyone to go through that much trouble just to like my film!
What I do want to say therefore though is a BIG THANKS to everyone who watched it, regardless of whether they were able to like it or not. That you watched it and took time to let me know how you’d found it and that you’d enjoyed it means the world to me!!!
For anyone who didn’t catch it at the festival in-person screening or online during the festival, you can still watch it now.
Tuesday, 19 March 2024 – Ledbury Poetry Salon, featuring Sarah James, and Open Mic
Ledbury Poetry House
Herefordshire
Tue 19 Mar 2024,
7:00PM – 9:00PM
I’m so excited to be back doing a reading for Ledbury Poetry. The main festival is always a delight, and the range of workshops, readings and other events they stage throughout the year is incredible.
More information and ticket-booking can be found here. (Scroll down the page to find this event, then either click on BOOK NOW to get tickets or on the event title, Ledbury Poetry Salon and Open Mic – Sarah James, if you’d like to see more information about it first.)
WORKSHOP AND PERFORMANCE
I had an amazing time yesterday afternoon leading a poetry workshop on the theme of ‘Truth’ for Crave Arts at Number 8, Pershore. There was some wonderful work produced and shared in the workshop.
After six weeks for feedback and honing the pieces, some of the resulting poems from this workshop and scripts from the linked Crave Arts script-writing ‘Lies’ workshop will be showcased at the theatre on Saturday, 27 April. Click here for details and booking for the Truth & Lies Showcase on Saturday 27 April – 7.30pm.
Steve Wilson also has his ‘Diary of a Badminton Player’ on at the theatre the night before (Fri 26 April, 7.30pm). Written and performed by emerging local playwright Steve Wilson, this one-man play is a heartfelt and quirky comedy about a busy middle-aged man facing the difficulties of ageing and trying to maintain his status as Worcester’s top badminton celebrity. More information and ticket booking for this can be found here.
Add comment March 17, 2024 sarahjameswrites
Challenges…in life and writing
At Christmas, I had a closer encounter than I’d like with the fragility of life. I’ve not blogged about it, and I’ve only touched upon it briefly on social media in my first post of the year on Instagram. However, as the first two months of the year slowly unfold, it’s clearly changed me/my life since, just as everything does. But summing up the whats and hows of this is as imprecise and intangible as life itself. There’s at least one, if not more, analogies for poetry and/or the writing process hiding in there too, I suspect. For now, one thing I have noticed the past few weeks, which may (or may not be) linked to this, is my taking on a couple of fast-writing challenges.
To put this in context, there’s normally quite a long period for me – at least months, if not years – between initially drafting a poem, editing, re-drafting, editing, editing some more, maybe submitting it, editing again, submitting again, and looping back on some of these many times before a poem is eventually published. In January, I blogged about my New Year’s Day publication, Despite Falling on Picture Frame Poem (poem number 5). This poem, which touches on what happened to me on Christmas Day, was written and submitted in something like 24-48 hours.
Last month, I took part in a different 24-hour challenge run by Colin Dardis/Rancid Idols Productions, where those taking part had 24 hours to respond to a prompt and write a submit a poem for potential publication in the themed chapbook. The prompt was WAR and I’m absolutely stunned by the poems produced by the poets that took part! You can read the WAR chapbook here, including my poem Gutting the horse.
For me, this challenge coincided with a Saturday when I also had a two-hour morning walk, an afternoon and evening catching up with friends, and not enough sleep before finally hitting send on my poem to get it in before the 10am Sunday deadline. In other words, it was very ‘by the seat of my pants’. I’m not sure I’ll by writing this way too often but it was a great buzz, and to be honest, I’m still amazed that I actually managed it!
COMPETITION AND OTHER WRITING/PHOTOGRAPHY NEWS
It’s been good to start the new year not just with challenges but some lovely competition success. As well as the news I shared last month, I’ve also had a poem shortlisted in the Molecules Unlimited (pain and the management of pain themed) poetry competition!
I’m delighted to have two poems in a new anthology, Vo(i)ces II, out from Victorina Press. This bilingual poetry anthology in English and Spanish showcases the winning and commended poems from the life, death and beyond themed Victorina Press Poetry Award 2022. My poem Overgrown was joint first prize-winner and my poem For Winter was commended in the contest. The anthology is available from the press website here. You can also find interviews with me and some of the other poets here.
I’m very pleased too to have a photo, Cryptic, in Riggwelter #31 published at the end of January. You can download the issue for free here and Cryptic can be found on page 24.
Three photos – ‘Fires of Life’, ‘Evidence of Gulls (Hunger)’ and ‘Almost to the Moon and Back’ – have also been published in the fabulous Rat’s Ass Review, Spring-Summer 2024 issue.
One of the best things about being a writer is that reading other books and poems becomes part of the job, so, much easier to prioritise when life is busy than other leisure activities. I was really pleased to be invited to write a Castaway Companions piece for The Friday Poem about the three poems I’d take with me to a desert island. Choosing wasn’t easy, and the poems were also supposed to be ones that had particularly influenced me as a writer rather than just as a reader…you can read about how this all turned out and what I ended up taking here.
EVENT/READING NEWS
Tuesday, 19 March 2024 – Ledbury Poetry Salon, featuring Sarah James, and Open Mic
Ledbury Poetry House
Herefordshire
Tue 19 Mar 2024,
7:00PM – 9:00PM
More information and ticket-booking here.
Join Ledbury Poetry’s new monthly Salon and Open Mic. An evening with Sarah James, hosted by Chloe Garner, with an open mic (sign up on the night).
Sarah James (also published as Sarah Leavesley) is a prize-winning poet. Her latest full-length collection Blood Sugar, Sex, Magic (Verve Poetry Press, 2022) is partly inspired by living with type one diabetes from the age of six, as well as motherhood, nature, ageing and self-identity in a constantly updating world. She also runs V. Press, publishing other writers’ poetry and flash fiction.
POETRY FILM NEWS
Friday, 23 February 2024 – VERVE Poetry Film Event, including Marcasite
9–10pm
Tickets: Full £8 / Cons £6
Marcasite is a poetryfilm animation by Haniyyah Nauzeer of Sarah’s The Forward Book of Poetry 2023 poem from her highly commended Verve Poetry Press collection Blood Sugar, Sex, Magic, as part of a collaboration between the Forward Prize and the University of Brighton animation students.
Marcasite is one of a small number of poetry films selected for the event. The full line-up and ticket details can be found here, with options for attending in person (Birmingham Hippodrome) or livestream viewing.
WORKSHOP NEWS
Saturday, 16 March 2024 – Truth & Lies Workshops: Poetry: ‘Truth’ at Number 8 in Pershore
1.30 – 4.00pm
Cost: £10
(plus £1 per ticket if booked online)
Sarah will be running a poetry and spoken word creative writing workshop for Crave Arts that will lead to a performance event in the Number 8 auditorium on Saturday 27 April.
No previous experience necessary – just a willingness to have fun with words and performance. Following the workshops, participants will hone their poetry, spoken word and scripts ready for the showcase.
Prize-winning poet Sarah James/Leavesley invites workshop participants to explore how writers can use truths and tension in poetry and spoken word.
Click here for details and booking for this workshop.
Click here for details and booking for the other workshop in the series, Playwriting – ‘Lies’ (with Steve Wilson on Saturday 16 March, 10.00am – 12.30pm).
Click here for details and booking for the Truth & Lies Showcase on Saturday 27 April – 7.30pm.
REVIEW NEWS
““Ten Lines or More Than Just Love Notes” has the calm self-assurance of someone who knows both what she wants to say and how to say it. There’s a confidence in the poems’ crafts – as well as the specular there are also a couple of concrete poems – and in giving readers space to interpret the poems how they wish. James shows a willingness to record mature topics and carry readers with her.”
Emma Lee, full review here.
More about Ten Lines or More Than Just Love Notes and a book bundle for this title with my full collection Blood Sugar, Sex, Magic (Verve Poetry Press, 2022), for just £12 with UK delivery here.
Add comment February 17, 2024 sarahjameswrites
I’m delighted to have a photo, Cryptic, in the latest issue of Riggwelter, published today!
Add comment January 31, 2024 sarahjameswrites
A new year, new news…
I’m delighted that my poem Human Shadow has won third prize in the (memory-themed) Mist and Mountain International Poetry Prize 2023.
I’m also pleased to have a short Pain and Gain in Poetry article in Artemis, issue 31 in Dec 2023 and my first poetry publication of 2024 was on New Year’s Day, Despite Falling on Picture Frame Poem (poem number 5).
Two experimental poems, awake, the morning*1 after and renovation, have also just been published in streetcake, issue 88 (pages 19 & 20).
It’s been a while since I did much with my photography, so I’m excited to have a photo accepted for the thirty-first issue of Riggwelter and another photo taken for the the cover image for Ofi 74 out later this year. I’m also very pleased to have three photos, Almost to the Moon and Back, Fires of Life, and Evidence of Gulls (Hunger), taken for the Spring 2024 issue of Rat’s Ass Review!
Endorsement
I was absolutely delighted to be invited last year to write for an endorsement for Birds Knit My Ribs Together by Phil Barnett (Arachne Press, 2024) which is out now with Arachne Press.
“Birds Knit My Ribs Together is a heart-clenchingly beautiful healing in words. Birds, nature and man exist as one in this stunning collection. Reading these powerful poems is a meditative journey from a ‘lost jigsaw piece of sky […] with scar tissue dreams’ and ‘eyes like a drowned village’ (‘Wounds’) to ‘on every twig of every branch / buds, tiny resurrections’ (‘A Willow’s Word’), taking in many wonders along the way.”
This is a beautiful and mesmerising collection of poems that really struck deep. You can find out more and order a copy from Arachne Press here.
Add comment January 21, 2024 sarahjameswrites
Seasonal greetings & a little news
Wishing all my friends and readers a wonderful festive period and great start to 2024, with big thanks for your support over the past 12 months, and beyond!!!
POETRY IN BRIEF
Earlier this Autumn, I was delighted to be shortlisted in The Culture Matters Bread & Roses Poetry Award 2023. My poem The Skyscraper has just been published in The Fruits of Starmer’s Labour: The Bread & Roses Poetry Award Anthology 2023 (Culture Matters, 2023).
REVIEW NEWS
“This month I read James’ 2021 Overton Poetry Prize-winning collection, Ten Lines or More Than Just Love Notes. Her sense of measure and precision in conveying raw emotion amazes me. She’s an innovator. Here, James communicates the feelings and insights that comes as relationships change and end. Her imagery is fresh, at times unsettling. Each page, a surprise.”
Robin Blackburn McBride, here.
You can find out more about Ten Lines or More Than Just Love Notes here.
PLAYING WITH IMAGES
You can find out more about Rain Falling here and copies of this pamphlet can be ordered from Wigtown Festival Company here.
NEXT YEAR
I’m delighted to have had my first poetry publication acceptance for next year: awake, the morning*1 after and renovation in the next issue of streetcake, out in January 2024.
Add comment December 17, 2023 sarahjameswrites
Flying into Fall
RAIN FALLING
I’m really delighted to share news of the publication of Rain Falling, my pamphlet that won last year’s Alastair Reid Pamphlet Prize, which has been beautifully typeset and designed by Gerry Cambridge!
WINNER OF THE WIGTOWN POETRY PRIZE ALASTAIR REID PAMPHLET PRIZE 2022
ISBN: 978-1-7394085-0-3
Available from Wigtown Book Festival here or as part of a book bundle here.
Competition judge Vahni Capildeo said: “[…]deliberately delicate and pretty language charts flux and destruction. This is the individual lyric’s ability to sing, lovingly attuned to our common home, turning into collective lament. The techniques match the preoccupations: pleasing, quietly alarming repetitions and re-cyclings in forms that have been crafted as fixed, while the voice continues flowing as if free.”
An audio-visual version of the pamphlet can also be enjoyed here
OTHER NEWS
Winter Light published in Glisk and Glimmer Poems About Light (Sídhe Press, 2023) available from UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CGKYJGN3; US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CGKYJGN3; DE: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B0CGKYJGN3; AU: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B0CGKYJGN3.
My poem The Half-a-man is published on Ink, Sweat & Tears.
Porcelain Pieces and And Exhale have been selected for inclusion in Creative Juices, an anthology of the best poems submitted to this year’s Ripon Poetry Festival competition. I’m delighted to be reading one of them at this year’s anthology launch as part of the festival on 23 September, 2023.
I’m also delighted to have a 100-word poem, Our New Estate, accepted for the Spring 2024 issue of The Dribble Drabble Review.
Add comment September 18, 2023 sarahjameswrites
A shortlisting, a commendation & more…
My exciting pre-summer vac news is Blood Sugar, Sex, Magic (Verve Poetry Press) being shortlisted in this year’s International Rubery Book Award!!!
The shortlisting includes a wonderful review of the collection.
“This writer is clearly an accomplished poet. […] A lovely book which effortlessly turns trauma into art.”
International Rubery Book Awards 2023
The full detailed review and details about the other shortlisted titles can be found here.
If you don’t have the collection yet, it’s available from Verve Poetry Press here. More information, sample poems, reviews and some special book bundles are also available on the Blood Sugar, Sex, Magic page on my website here.
My poem Your Latest Operation, which was longlisted in the Leeds Poetry Festival ‘Out of Time’ poetry competition, has now been published in the Out of Time anthology. Copies can be ordered from the festival website here.
Meanwhile, my Pre-Raphaelite Society Poetry Competition 2022 Chair’s Commendation-winning poem, A Flood, has been published in in PRS Review, Volume XXXI, Number 2, Summer 2023 and I’m delighted too to have my poem Fluttering at the feeder and a photo, what is a window / but a hole in the stone / we’ve built around us, published in The Gentian in July 2023.
I also have another poem, Winter Light, accepted for publication in the Sídhe Press Glisk & Glimmer – Poems About Light anthology out later this year.
Add comment July 23, 2023 sarahjameswrites
Heading into summer
I’m really excited to share that my poem Your Latest Operation is longlisted in the Leeds Poetry Festival ‘Out of Time’ poetry competition!
The announcement of the prize-winners and Out of Time! anthology launch takes place in July as part of the festival. Event details can be found here, and the full festival programme here.
A poetryfilm animation of Marcasite, the poem from my Forward Prize highly commended collection Blood Sugar, Sex, Magic (Verve Poetry Press, 2022) that was chosen for The Forward Book of Poetry 2023, has been created by Haniyyah Nauzeer, who can be found on Instagram as @madebyhaniyyah.
I’m also excited to have been able to celebrate Blood Sugar, Sex, Magic‘s book birthday with the sharing of poetryfilm versions of two other poems in the collection, Mâché and Balancing on the Swinging Hammock.
A poetryfilm version of Mâché:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/cc6T0YN8Szc
A poetryfilm version of Balancing on the Swinging Hammock:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/DQAE5suNptg
If you don’t have the collection yet, it’s available from Verve Poetry Press here. More information, sample poems, reviews and some special book bundles are also available on the Blood Sugar, Sex, Magic page on my website here.
I was really delighted to take part in a University of Birmingham Disability in poetry and performance event in June alongside the brilliant writers Beth O’Brien and Jamie Hale. A video of me reading Diagnosis, the opening piece in Blood Sugar, Sex, Magic, can be heard below.
Video Player
00:00
02:52
FICTION NEWS
Last, but not least, I’m very pleased that my short story Beyond the Lake is in Poetry Out Loud Issue 5. You can find this on Amazon here.
Add comment June 17, 2023 sarahjameswrites
Late Spring News
I was delighted to hear my poem A Flood has won the Chair’s Commendation in the Pre-Raphaelite Society Poetry Competition 2022. My poem was actually inspired by a visit to Manchester Art Gallery to see their Pre-Raphaelite works, including Sir John Everett Millais’s 1870 painting ‘A Flood’. But this news is also a good chance for me to share a link to something else Pre-Rapahelite, my Hashtag PreRaphsOxford, Hashtag (Testof)Time – Pre-Rapahelites: Drawings & Watercolours review here.
OTHER POETRY
Pissed as a Newt published on Spilling Cocoa Over Martin Amis in May 2023;
The Swan and Lazy Days Retirement Home published in London Grip, Spring 2023, in March 2023;
Our Plant published in In•spire (Fragmented Voices anthology) in February 2023;
Frustrations in the Office published on Spilling Cocoa Over Martin Amis in February 2023.
FLASH
The deepest hole in Strix, issue 9, in April 2023.
The longest heartbeat was longlisted (and published) in the prose section of the Urban Tree Festival writing competition 2023 in April 2023. The opening to the flash is in the photo above. To read the full flash, follow this link.
Add comment May 6, 2023 sarahjameswrites
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