Sarah Sarai
Sarah Sarai's latest (2024) poetry collection is BRIGHT-EYED (Poets Wear Prada). You can find John Brantingham's review in Tears in the Fence; Charles Rammelkampt's in Compulsive Reader; Jeanne Griggs' on Necromancy Never Pays; and Jordan E. Franklin's on the Mom Egg Review (MER) blog, with more reviews forthcoming.
Her previous collections (all available on Amazon) are That Strapless Bra in Heaven (Kelsay Books/2019); Geographies of Soul and Taffeta (Indolent Books/2016); and The Future Is Happy (BlazeVOX[books]/2009). Her poems are widely anthologized, most notably in Gerald LaFemina’s Composing Poetry, a Guide to Writing Poems and Thinking Lyrically (Kendall Hunt Publishing); Like a Fat Gold Watch: Poetic Responses to Sylvia Plath (FGW); Say It Loud: Poems About James Brown (Whirlwind). Born in Long Island, New York, her family moved west when she was eight years old, a transition she writes about in BRIGHT-EYED, Her poems describe the move to the different way of existing available in Los Angeles. L.A. life in the hip 70s; friends such as Judee Sill (the first artist signed to Geffen Records); a diversity of relatives and neighborhoods - the San Fernando Valley; the Crenshaw District; Echo Park; race; politics; being human. She holds an MFA in fiction from Sarah Lawrence College. Her short fiction has been published in the journals Cleaver, Tampa Review, Connotations Press, Fairy Tale Review, and many others.
A favorite at poetry readings throughout the New York City area, Sarah has also read her work in Washington, D.C., Seattle, Chicago, and via the ubiquitous Zoom, in many cities. Her first adult job (it took some time for her to mellow) was as a high school English teacher in a Catholic girls' school south of downtown L.A. She was award a National Endowment for the Humanities grant for secondary educators, held at Kenyan College. Then she moved to Seattle where she received grants in both writing and as an editor from the Seattle Arts Commission and the King County Arts Commission. After some years, she began writing poetry. And soon after, she moved to NYC.
