I’m delighted to share two new significant blue things in this post. The first is my photo above. It’s not the first time I’ve seen a kingfisher while out walking in Worcestershire. But it is the first time I’ve been able to observe one for more than a few seconds, and also long enough to get some photos.

I caught sight of the blue flash of this beauty flying from one side of the canal to the other, and, for once, it didn’t disappear into reeds and I was also close enough to be able to spot the branch where it landed. This made me suspect I may in fact have seen kingfishers more often than I realise. When I’ve spotted kingfishers, it’s always been through the bright blue of their wings in flight. Once this bird was on the branch though, not moving, it just looked like an autumn leaf, its blue feathers somehow hidden or camouflaged to my naked eye at that distance. Zooming in on this leaf, which I knew wasn’t a leaf, the camera acted like binoculars, revealing all the feathers, beak and poise.

Rationally, I don’t believe in signs and simple coincidences being any more significant than chance. But emotionally, it’s an entirely different story. This kingfisher moment was one I thought I’d go my whole life without experiencing naturally (as opposed to sitting in a hide specially designed so photographers can potentially get a picture). And it happened when I was feeling somewhat depressed, on the weekend celebrating a significant birthday with my dad, and after I’d just received a wonderful new review of Darling Blue!

DARLING BLUE REVIEW

“Darling Blue is a poetry collection that creates its own world. […]
“It’s an elegant lesson in what a whole collection can do, rather than simply being a series of competent or excellent poems. Darling Blue gives us ekphrasis, yes, but as an act of creating a woman’s inner life: we want the paintings to decode her. Then there are prose-poem heartbreaks when reality crashes in, and the epistolary poems addressed to Blue.[…]
“I finished the book thinking about the whole thing rather than individual poems: about what had happened to me as a reader while moving through its paintings, and how differently I understood the first pages by the time I reached the last. The collection is the poem. And it is a very good one.”
Jessica Mookherjee, Everybody’s Reviewing, full review here.

I can’t say how much it meant to me and how grateful I am for this stunning new review of Darling Blue by Jessica Mookherjee. A big thanks to her and Everybody’s Reviewing. Meanwhile, more info, sample poems and other review details for Darling Blue (Indigo Dreams, 2025) can be found here, and ordering from Indigo Dreams here.

OTHER NEWS

In my last post, I was pleased to share about my poem,The Frog Princess , in Quibble Lit’s JUNGLE: Quibble Lit — Volume VIII. The piece was inspired by the issue’s cover art and I’m really excited to have it appearing on QuibbleLit.com and in the print edition.

I also now have a craft note up on the Quibble Lit substack about the inspiration and writing of this poem, where you can check out the cover image in more detail too. You can read it here — and if anything in it strikes a chord with your own writing process, or contrasts significantly, then do leave a comment. I find artistic process really interesting, especially trying to pin down the instinctive bits so that I can challenge, adapt or re-spark them.

Recently, I’ve also had poems in some other beautiful magazines and anthologies. This includes my poem trawling Aquatica III, 2094 shortlisted and then highly commended in the Matthew Lanyon Poetry Prize 2026, which is in a stunning competition anthology The Archaeology of Tomorrow (Guillemot Press, 2026). The summer before is in The Fig Tree Women’s Poetry Anthology (Crooked Spire Press, 2026) and my poem Divine Lust is in Clarion Poetry #6.

Big thanks to all the people involved in making these things, and the others that I’ll mention in a bit, happen — judges, editors and those involved in the running and organising of competitions, journals and festivals!

COMING UP SOON

Saturday, 3 October 2026 — Wirral Poetry Festival Video Anthology 2026 screening

12 pm – 3 pm (playing on a loop)
The Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight CH62 5EQ

FREE — No booking required
Details here

Sarah is delighted to have a three-part poetryfilm sequence, Invisible Bridges, in this year’s Wirral Poetry Festival Video Anthology, which will be screened at the Lady Lever Art Gallery on Saturday, 4 October, 2025. This is a free event and more details about this can be found here. The full festival programme can be found here. And see below for another festival event featuring Sarah’s collection Darling Blue (Indigo Dreams, 2025).

Sunday, 4 October 2026 — Darling Blue, a Wirral Poetry Poetry Festival multimedia poetry & art ‘tour’

Sunday 4 October 2026 – 6.00-7.00PM
The Church Hall, Port Sunlight, Wirral, CH62 5DL

Tickets:£6 for online bookings
£7 On the Door (Subject to availability)
Carers Accompanying adults Free with Access Card

Information here: https://wirralpoetryfestival.org.uk/sarah-james-darling-blue/
Tickets (from 1 August) here: https://www.ticketsource.com/wirral-poetry/sarah-james-darling-blue/2026-10-04/18:00/t-kdyjmqa

A multimedia presentation of Sarah’s latest collection Darling Blue, enjoying poetry and art from the comfort of your seat.

Partially inspired by pieces at the Lady Lever Art Gallery, her latest collection, Darling Blue (Indigo Dreams, 2025) interweaves art-inspired poems with a book-length fictional poetry narrative of love, lust and letting go.

Darling Blue was joint winner of the Geoff Stevens Memorial Poetry Prize 2024 and Sarah’s many individual poem competition wins include the Pre-Raphaelite Society’s Poetry Prize 2024 and 2025. The High Window Resident Artist 2019 and 2026, she also runs V. Press, publishing poetry and flash fiction.

Somehow summer has done its magic trick again, of appearing, turning everything light and golden — though not totally in a good way when it comes to the environment and wildlife — and then, suddenly it’s August, the days are noticeably shortening again and autumn is already creeping into my diary. I have, therefore, been making the most of as much time as possible to walk and I’m very pleased to open this post with news of winning Carcanet’s Welton Walks poetry competition. The competition called for writers to be inspired by nature and the ‘June’ poem from Matthew Welton’s new collection Small Birds Singing. A perfect excuse to walk and write, not that I’ve ever really needed one. You can enjoy my poem, ‘Distillation, in snatches’ on Carcanet’s substack here and some photos from the main walk that inspired the poem on my Instagram here.

Haiku-esque poems have long been something I’ve combined with photos in photo-poems and, along with haibun, increasingly feel the forms that most naturally capture my observations of and interactions with the world around me when I walk. In this syllabic poem, the haiku-structured stanzas and a concluding 7 syllable line opened themselves like pockets waiting to be filled with snippets my mind (and eyes, ears and heart) picked up along the local towpaths in June. I struggled more with the title. I’d love to say that I’d always intended for it to have a 7-syllable structure mirroring the closing line. I didn’t and didn’t even realise until several days of sitting with ‘Distillation, in snatches’, trying to work out why it felt so much better than, for example, just Distillation. It was really pleasing to click that it had that opening syllabic balance to the final line. Though, that of course, is not the complete story. Snatches of Distillation would have 7 syllables too but doesn’t have the strange syntax of ‘Distillation, in snatches’ that feels so right, so poised (for me at least) for this poem. It is part of the greater joy, perhaps, of working with forms like haiku. The more pared down lines become, the more important punctuation can become. At the same time, that spareness can potentially open up more possible meanings (especially if omitting punctuation on line ends allows lines to link in multiple different ways, making different meanings possible simultaneously).

I’ve walked a lot of words on this poem, so I’ll stop now and move on to more news that has had me out and about walking in different places over the past month or so.

I was excited to have my poem trawling Aquatica III, 2094 shortlisted and then highly commended in the Matthew Lanyon Poetry Prize 2026. I went down to Falmouth to read my poem at the Festival of Matthew Lanyon, where I also got to enjoy the exhibition of his work and, thanks to an inspiring sculpture workshop using plastic recovered from the ocean, I was also able to transform it into a physical piece (badly captured by me in the bottom two pix here). The competition theme was Archaeology of Tomorrow and you can enjoy my poem and other beautiful shortlisted and winning pieces here.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

I’m delighted too to have my poem The Language of Clouds highly commended/runner-up in St. Mary’s Arts Festival 2026‘s Peace Poetry Competition and on display in St. Mary’s Church, Stafford, as part of the festival, which ran from 20 June – 5 July 2026.

It’s been an unusually good summer for me this year as I’m also very pleased and grateful to have my poem Shirako no Taki ‘the waterfall of white thread’ shortlisted in the 2025/26 Cheshire Prize for Literature (anthology out in November), another shortlisted in Frome Festival’s Crysse Morrison Prize for Poetry 2026 and to have two stories, Not Black Death and Into thin air, shortlisted/in the top ten of this year’s Worcestershire Litfest Flash Fiction Competition (anthology out later this year), as well as a micro flash longlisted in the Welkin Genre Prize 2026 Body Prize.
 
My humorous poem A Day Out was displayed at Droitwich Spa Railway Station (Birmingham-bound platform) for June 2026 as part of the Train of Thought project. The submission criteria was a maximum of 8 lines, great fun but also a big challenge. It’s no small thing to hone all the things that could be said down to the most crucial so that every word and line not only counts but pulls maximum weight. Check out the poem at the station, in my picture here and/or through my videoed on-site reading below to see what I did with it. (I have another poem scheduled to go up in October.)

 
I’m very pleased too to have my poem My Dear Beloved and photo Moonstruck in Paris Lit Up’s moon-themed PLU Gazette, Summer Edition 2026. It’s a stunning issue, which you can read and enjoy here. (My photo and poem are at the start of Part III.)

I also have two haibun (sequences), Different Keys and Handled with care, published in Words Beyond Horizons, a prose poetry anthology by POL Publications, which can be found on Amazon here.

And I’ve another poem,The Frog Princess , in Quibble Lit’s JUNGLE: Quibble Lit — Volume VIII. The piece was inspired by one of the issue’s cover artworks art and I’m really excited to have it appearing on QuibbleLit.com and in the print edition.

Big thanks to all the people involved in making these things, and the others that I’ll mention in a bit, happen — judges, editors and those involved in the running and organising of competitions, journals and festivals!

REVIEW/PODCAST NEWS

Much gratitude to London Grip, reviews editor Michael Bartholomew-Biggs and reviewer Rennie Halstead for a long, detailed and generous review of Darling Blue. A snippet from it can be found below, along with a link for the full review. Meanwhile, more info, sample poems and other review details for Darling Blue (Indigo Dreams, 2025) can be found here, and ordering from Indigo Dreams here.

“This is a rewarding, layered collection that repays revisiting. The core of the collection is a story of a lover breaking free from an affair to find herself and a mutually rewarding relationship, told through a collage of ekphrastic poems and personal reactions. Underlying the narrative is a discussion of the nature of male power, a lasting image of patriarchy shown not only in Blue’s establishing of the rules of the relationship, but also by the selection of images of passive women from the Pre-Raphaelites.

“James shows us two types of love – the mutual selfishness of the lovers and the deeper sharing of the man, and the added consequence of the child. The collection captures the way love can change and mature. Highly recommended.”
Rennie Halstead, London Grip, full review here.

I was delighted to read and discuss poems, along with the poetry and writing world, with Heys Wolfenden and Ansuya Patel in episode 30 of What! the Heys. You can enjoy this and other episodes of the writing podcast here.

POETRY & ART/POETRYFILM NEWS

My PICTURE THIS IN MOTION – POETRYFILM craft article, poem, animated gifs and poetryfilms published on The High Window as Resident Artist, Summer 2026, has also been a bittersweet celebration as this marks the last issue of the longstanding magazine. I’m proud to have been a small part of this in different ways across the years and my final artist slot includes a piece specially written and created to celebrate and thank editor David Cooke for all the work he has put into The High Window. I’m pleased to have had many poems published in the journal over this time and to have been The High Window Resident Artist in 2019 before taking up the role again for the two issues of 2026. I hope if readers haven’t enjoyed the journal before, they will not only explore this final issue but also the poetry, art, translations and special features that can be found in previous issues too. There is a wealth of wonderful pieces, information and inspiration on the website!

COMING UP SOON

Sunday, 4 October 2026 — Darling Blue, a Wirral Poetry Poetry Festival multimedia poetry & art ‘tour’

Sunday 4 October 2026 – 6.00-7.00PM
The Church Hall, Port Sunlight, Wirral, CH62 5DL

Tickets:£6 for online bookings
£7 On the Door (Subject to availability)
Carers Accompanying adults Free with Access Card

Information here: https://wirralpoetryfestival.org.uk/sarah-james-darling-blue/
Tickets (from 1 August) here: https://www.ticketsource.com/wirral-poetry/sarah-james-darling-blue/2026-10-04/18:00/t-kdyjmqa

A multimedia presentation of Sarah’s latest collection Darling Blue, enjoying poetry and art from the comfort of your seat.

Partially inspired by pieces at the Lady Lever Art Gallery, her latest collection, Darling Blue (Indigo Dreams, 2025) interweaves art-inspired poems with a book-length fictional poetry narrative of love, lust and letting go.

Darling Blue was joint winner of the Geoff Stevens Memorial Poetry Prize 2024 and Sarah’s many individual poem competition wins include the Pre-Raphaelite Society’s Poetry Prize 2024 and 2025. The High Window Resident Artist 2019 and 2026, she also runs V. Press, publishing poetry and flash fiction.

EVENTS SNIPPETS

It was a real pleasure to be July’s headline poet at Dear Listener hosted by Script Haven at its beautiful new premises in Worcester. It was a great night — lots of new and familiar poetry voices braving, or facing up to, the heat to be there — with a great range of wonderful poems in the open mic.

If you haven’t checked out the bookshop’s new place yet, I’d thoroughly recommend doing so — you can find it 5 Crown Passage, Broad Street, Worcester, (WR1 3LL). Likewise, Dear Listener. I’d thoroughly recommend both for a warm and friendly welcome — and a big thanks to everyone for having me!

P.S.: MY REVIEWING

On the topic of bookshops and reading, I’m delighted to have been able to review Dharmavadana’s Birdmen and Astronauts (Poetry Salzburg, 2026) for London Grip. You can read the review here.

It has been a while since I posted here, or, to be honest on social media. It has been a hectic few months with family and poetry stuff, mostly good, but also some not quite so good on the health front. The latter though only makes the good things feel more important to celebrate and feel grateful for. On this score, I’m delighted to share that my poem Fruitful has been awarded first place and another poem, Deep meadows, the Poet-in-Residence’s commendation in The Pre-Raphaelite Society Poetry Prize 2025. The first of these is inspired by William Morris and his wallpaper designs and the second by John William Waterhouse’s ‘Windflowers’. The wonderful news came as I was celebrating a Spring Launch of Darling Blue (Indigo Dreams, 2025), at Script Haven bookshop in Worcester, bringing even more light to a lovely day and evening. (More about the launch and pictures below.)

I’m very happy to have my poems Sky-tipped and One Jump / Many Jumps published in STOAT POETRY magazine, Issue 1, Spring 2026 and The summer before published in The Fig Tree, Women’s Poetry Special Issue 2, and my poem The Other Side of the Moon published in The Fig Tree Anthology 2025 (Crooked Spire Press), now available from here.

I’m very pleased too to have my poem Divine Lust taken for Clarion Poetry #6 and chuffed to to have my poem REDACTED published in Streetcake, issue 101. (The latter is part of a speculative fiction sequence of poems that I’ve written as part of a poetry collaboration with a wonderful poet, and which I’ll share more about in due course.)

Big thanks to all involved in organising, judging and editing these competitions and journals!

Resident Artist & photography news

As I mentioned in my last post, I have two Resident Artist articles with photos/animated gifs/poetryfilm on The High Window this year. The first of these is now live. PICTURE THIS IN MOTION – ANIMATED POETRY, a craft article, poems, photos and animated gifs published on The High Window as Resident Artist, Spring 2026.

I’m also excited to have three photos, ‘Need or Greed 2’ ‘Caught’ and ‘A Need for Nectar’, in the art section of Underbelly, issue 6. Another piece shortlisted for the journal front cover has been used as the inside heading artwork for the Poetry section. You can check all four pieces out here.

Big thanks to the editors of both these wonderful journals!

Reading & Reviewing

Although I’m still not getting as much time to read as I like, I’ve managed to use walks, journeys and odd half-hours in the evening to power through a few novels over the past two months. (No reviews but star-rated over on Goodreads.)

I’ve also been enjoying some new poetry titles. I reviewed Cia Mangat’s lobe(poetry chapbook, (Smith|Doorstep Books, 2025) for London Grip and also Jean Atkin and Richard Skinner’s CROSSING Paths (poetry chapbook, Black Cat Poetry Press, 2026), which can be found on London Grip here.The other two new collections in the picture here were for pure poetry pleasure and it has been a lot of pleasure dipping in and out of them, reading, re-reading and lingering on some of the lines. I’d very much recommend all four of these!

Darling Blue Spring launch

Even the sun was out for my Spring Launch of Darling Blue (Indigo Dreams, 2025), at Script Haven bookshop in Worcester, though I’ll admit it was still quite cold/awakening outside!

A big thank you to Leena Batchelor at Script Haven for hosting and organising and so many other things that made it such a lovely venue and wonderful day. Big thanks too to everyone that came. I was publisher/poet in residence during the day, reading a poem on the hour, chatting with people I knew and many I didn’t. I wrote some haiku for those who wanted them — a small selection below. There was also a poetryfilm anthology with poetryfilms by myself, Kathy Gee and Nina Lewis running on a loop and an impromptu poetry workshop. Then to round it all off, a wonderful selection of poems in the open mic, followed by a reading from me. A small selection of photos, with some of the haiku interspersed, can be found below.

streets bright with spring light
& laughter beckon me out —
I brr back inside.

 
here I am, shelved books
around me — becoming part
of today’s new story

Leena Batchelor

Jenny Hope

Kathy Gee

Andy Hoaen

just in for coffee,
cake & a slice of haiku —
intense, sweet & light
 

 

Sylv’s granddaughter plays
guitar; spring music in leaf,
young love blossoms

 

Headlining, Cheltenham Poetry Festival Reading & Free Verse

 
 

I had a wonderful time headlining at the Worcestershire Litfest & fringe in February. It was a great night with lots of wonderful poetry from all the readers and performers. My set had a pre-Valentine’s Day, ‘love me, love me not’ theme to it, including poems from Darling Blue (Indigo Dreams, 2025), Blood Sugar, Sex, Magic (Verve Poetry Press, 2022) and plenty-fish(Nine Arches Press, 2015).

Big thanks to Jenny Hope and Justin Leavesley for the photos above and to Jenny Hope for the video below. The video footage is live from the night, at a distance, so is quite quiet and may need volume levels turned up high in order to be heard properly.

Reading ‘Raindrop on a Red Leaf’ from plenty-fish(Nine Arches Press, 2015)

Despite a few family health things, I also had an amazing time at my Cheltenham Poetry Festival reading, Ways to Say We Are Not Alone, with Simon Alderwick and Duncan Forbes. I’ve always loved the festival but it’s the first time in a while that I’ve had chance to read there. Their sets were great — ranging through some very moving moments and pieces to others with a light, humorous touch. I read mostly from Darling Blue (Indigo Dreams, 2025), with a couple from Blood Sugar, Sex, Magic (Verve Poetry Press, 2022). Big thanks to Cheltenham Poetry Festival for having me and to the audience for their warm and welcome support. It was so lovely to see so many smiling faces and great to catch up with some old friends. I definitely came away feeling far from alone!

From Cheltenham, it was on to Free Verse Poetry Book Fair, run by The Poetry Society, in London. The picture below gives a taste of the V. Press stand, where I was happy to showcase Beth Osmond’s forthcoming (as of 1 May, now published) chapbook Hatchery, offer some new limited edition ‘Spice of Life Poetry Pots’ and throw in some freebies of Kaleidoscope and Always Another Twist, thanks to Mantle Lane Press sending some remaining stock on to me. There aren’t many left now, so if you’d like one, head over to my website pages for them while you can.

Here, this May bank holiday is a now much-needed rest, as well as a special family celebration. Whatever you’re doing, wherever you are, I hope you’re enjoying some light and sunshine. More from me soon…well, soonish!

I’m delighted to head into 2026 with 2 poems taken for Stoat Poetry and The summer before taken for The Fig Tree women’s special online issue and anthology. Big thanks to the editors and more on both of those soon… Also, in today’s round-up: reviews, readings, podcasts, interviews, publications and some snippet quotes from Darling Blue.

REVIEWS

Big thanks to The High Window and Gary Day for his wonderful and detailed review of Darling Blue.

“Anyone who’s been in love will find something of their experience reflected in this daring and tender volume. […] James is endlessly fascinating as she explores the nature of love and desire, relationships and the difference between fantasy and reality. What she shows, unsurprisingly, is that there are no answers but there is always art.”
Gary Day, The High Window, full review here

 

INTERVIEWS

I was delighted to be asked to focus on Darling Blue and the Pre-Raphaelites on The Pre-Raphaelite Society Podcast. This art-influenced chat/interview was so enjoyable, talking with Pre-Raphaelite Society Poet-in-Residence Sarah Doyle about Darling Blue’s Pre-Raphaelite inspiration and sharing some of the art-inspired poems. You can enjoy it here.

I had a great time too on Spoken Label – chatting with the host, Andy N, about Darling Blue, the writing process and putting together both the art-inspired poems and the interweaving fictional narrative, a short reading of a different selection of poems and talking specifically about some of the lines and choices of form and layout, with lots of thanks to Dawn and Ronnie at Indigo Dreams. You can listen to that here. (Structure-wise, extracts from Amanda and Andy N’s work up to 1m 57s, followed by background info on Spoken Label, then Part 1: the interview with me at 3m 15s, with Part 2: my reading of poems at 37m 15s.)

I was pleased too to be interviewed for What! The Heys — to talk about my new collection Darling Blue, my writing generally, how my disability feeds into this and my work running V. Press. Heys Wolfenden was great to chat to, with lots of interesting insights and questions. You can listen to the interview here and do check out the other interviews while you’re there; Heys has had a whole series of interesting writers on the podcast. There’s also a video from the interview here.

 

Big thanks to all involved with these podcasts — front of house and behind the scenes.

OTHER NEWS

My poem The Lost Garden’s Poison Patch, which was shortlisted in the Black Cat Press Nature Competition 2024, has been published in The Water Knows I Love You (Black Cat Poetry Press, 2025).

 

EVENTS

Thursday, 12 February 2026 — Headline Poet, Worcester SpeakEasy

Thursday, 12 February 2026
7:30 – 9:30pm
Boston Tea Party, Worcester (18 Broad St, Worcester WR1

Saturday, 28 February 2026 — Darling Blue Spring Launch at Script Haven in Worcester

 
Darling Blue blue & nature themed spring launch at Script Haven
Daytime Poet/Publisher in Residence with evening reading and open mic
Date: Saturday, 28 February 2026
Times: Poet/publisher in residence 10am-12pm and 1.30-5pm; reading & open mic: 6.30–8.30pm
Venue: Script Haven, 104 High Street, Worcester WR1 2HW
Limited evening 3-min open mic slots
FREE but please contact scripthavenltd@gmail.com in advance for an open mic slot

Daytime Poet/Publisher in residence is set to feature: a poem from Darling Blue on the hour every hour; book signing for Darling Blue; Sarah will be there to chat to readers and writers and answer writing or publishing questions; poet-in-residence haiku written on request; poetryfilm on loop.

 

Saturday, 18 April 2026 — Cheltenham Poetry Festival: Ways to Say We Are Not Alone – Simon Alderwick, Sarah James, Duncan Forbes

Cheltenham Friends’ Meeting House – Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), Cheltenham, GL52 2NP
Sat, 18 April 2026
5:00PM – 6:00PM
Tickets: £10.00
Booking here.

How can we write about the pain or pleasure of a relationship and love without veering into sentimentality, or equally into cynicism?

Three widely published poets demonstrate how they write from the heart, whilst remaining clear-eyed.

Prize-winning poet Sarah James’ collection Darling Blue (Indigo Dreams) blends ekphrastic poems with a fictional narrative exploring love, lust, and letting go, inspired by Pre-Raphaelite artworks. Darling Blue has been described as ‘rich in imagery and sensory detail, reminding the reader ‘how brightly sunlight shines through // when freed from a cracked mirror’ (Sarah Doyle, Pre-Raphaelite Society Poet-in-Residence), and as a ‘vivid, emotive, and essential reflection on what endures’ (Luke Kennard).

Duncan Forbes poems have been published by Faber, Secker and Enitharmon, who produced a Selected Poems in 2009, drawn from five previous collections. He has won a Gregory Award, Stephen Spender Prizes, Hawthornden Award and TLS/Blackwells prize for his most recent collections of poems, Human Time (2020) and Under the Sun (2024). ‘Duncan Forbes is a real discovery.’ Vernon Scannell.

Simon Alderwick is the author of the heartfelt and moving ways to say we’re not alone (2024) and the forthcoming reaper in a headlock (2026), both with Broken Sleep. Simon’s work addresses masculinity, fatherhood, the anthropocene, time travel, mental health and addiction. His work has appeared in Magma, Berlin Lit, Ink Sweat & Tears. A former Cheltenham resident, he now lives in Oxford. ‘Simon Alderwick’s poems fizz with a deep uncertainty and moments of imagistic magic. These are poems of faith and love, reminding us that, ‘not all prayers are answered’ Marvin Thompson.

Notes: For schools and other group bookings, please email the Festival Box Office cpfboxoffice@yahoo.com for information on discounts.
This event is part of a special offer. Buy tickets for three events on Saturday 18th April and get 20% off. This offer only applies when tickets are bought together. Offer runs until 28 Feb 2026.

 

A DARLING BLUE TASTER

Below, you can enjoy some of the social media snippet quotes posts for my collection Darling Blue (Indigo Dreams, 2025), which interweaves poems inspired by Pre-Raphaelite art with a book-length fictional poetry narrative of love, lust and letting go.

 
You can find out more about Darling Blue and order a copy from Indigo Dreams here or my website here.

 

Wishing all my family and friends, readers and supporters a very very light, love and laughter filled festive season and a great start to 2026!

My post today is quite a long one as it’s likely to be my last one of 2025 and I want to pack in a lot before the end of the year. Hope you enjoy — and looking forward to sharing 2026 with you all too!

DARLING BLUE LAUNCH WITH WORCESTERSHIRE POETRY SOCIETY STANZA GUEST POETS

I’m going to sum up the launch of Darling Blue with Worcestershire Poetry Society Stanza Guest Poets as amazing! I had a cracking afternoon, the feedback has been wonderful and I hope that as a stanza we may be able to use the library for similar launches or events in future, perhaps in conjunction with other local writing groups. Rather than use more words, I’m going to share a few photos instead. But just to say another BIG THANK YOU to all my guest readers and poetryfilm makers, to everyone involved in organising, to Dawn and Ronnie at Indigo Dreams for publishing Darling Blue and everyone who came along to support us and be part of the event! (And you can find out more about Darling Blue, order a copy from Indigo Dreams here or my website here. Droitwich Library/Worcestershire libraries also now have a copy that library users can borrow.)

 

NEW DARLING BLUE REVIEWS

I’m delighted to go into December with two new reviews of Darling Blue. The first is a wonderfully thoughtful and detailed review by Pre-Raphaelite Society Chair, Dr Serena Trowbridge.

“[…]James’s ability to recreate for the reader the emotions and situations of her poetic persona and to simultaneously extrapolate and bring to life the figures in the paintings makes this an absorbing and emotional experience. The Pre-Raphaelite aesthetic is carried over into the more personal poems which are not ekphrastic, too: […] The poems in the collection draw on an unusual range of paintings, suggesting a deep engagement with the Pre-Raphaelite oeuvre, and the strong visual resonances throughout the poems allows the reader to experience it as a gallery visit in which the paintings we see summon up our own personal connections and emotions. […]”
Serena Trowbridge, PRS Review, Winter 2025, the issue (which is part of PRS membership) with the full review can be found here.

I also feel very blessed and very spoiled for choice as to what to pick out from David Mark Williams’s review for The Lake, so, again, really would advise going over to the site to read the full piece, which can be enjoyed for free.

“The fictional narrative is compelling while the ekphrastic poems dazzle with as much verve as the paintings which inspired them, all of which are examples of Pre-Raphaelite artworks. […] Unlike a novella, Darling Blue requires to be read at the speed of poetry, that is slowly, carefully and with an awareness of how language is being used, primed as much for its rhetorical effects as the unfolding of a story. […] The unifying image of the whole work is a zoetrope: static paintings are endowed with kinesis as the compromised lovers go round in circles until the machine stops turning.[…] Indigo Dreams and the judges of the competition [Geoff Stevens Memorial Poetry Prize 2024] are to be commended for championing such a book and in so doing expanding the prevailing expectations of poetry.”
David Mark Williams, The Lake, full review here.

Firstly, I’d like to say a big thank you to David Mark Williams and The Lake, and Serena Trowbridge and PRS Review, for these reviews, as I know just how much time and work is involved both in reviewing and running any journal or small press. It is not insignificant, in fact, quite the opposite!

As we’re approaching Christmas and then the end of the year, I’d also like to use this opportunity to widen that thanks out to all small press editors and reviewers. They are such an important part of the poetry/writing/art-appreciation world and ones that maybe don’t always get paid the notice and appreciation that they should. So, thank you to all those doing this — your time and work put in for us is vital and very much appreciated!

OTHER POETRY/POETRYFILM NEWS

My poems Bat-winged and On dark nights have been shortlisted in walk · listen · create’s WRITE ABOUT WALKING ‘In the Dark’ writing competition and published in the WALKKING “IN THE DARK” anthology (Samson Low, 2025).

I’m delighted to have been longlisted for the Wild Muse Nature Writing Prize 2025 with a lyrical essay/hybrid piece.

My poem More than Castles in the Air, which was highly commended in Ludlow Town Walls Trust Poetry Competition 2025 has been published in the Ludlow Town Walls Trust poetry competition booklet, The Ludlow Poetry Collection. This is available from Castle Bookshop in Ludlow (5 Castle Street, SY8 1AS). The poem also featured in the fully-booked Ludlow Lantern Walk that followed the town walls, stopping at specific places for re-enactors to tell a story from Ludlow’s past, with my poem being read at the location where Marion de la Bruyere leapt from Pendover Tower.

My shortlisted Cheshire Prize for Literature 2024 poem, Hotel Mercurius, has been published in Kaleidoscope (University of Chester Press, 2025), which can be ordered here.

My poetryfilms The Skyscraper and The Nutritionist’s Night Out will be screened as part of Ó Bhéal go Béal’s monthly Poetry Night on 8 December 2025.

Big thanks to all the judges, editors and everyone involved in providing these opportunities. It’s a delight be a small part of each and every one of them.

MICRO-REVIEWS

If I’m honest, there are lots of things I miss about my early days in poetry. The number of events that I went to, not necessarily reading myself, sometimes just as audience. All the poetry chat with people in passing.

My first collection Into the Yell (Circaidy Gregory Press, 2010) was 15 years ago though. I’m not only older now but running V. Press also takes a lot of what might otherwise be free time.

This is preamble to my returning briefly, and most likely only as a one-off, to sharing a few micro-reviews of collections that I’ve enjoyed recently.

You are here by Heather Wastie (Lapal Publications, 2025)

This is a beautiful and intriguing mix of images and poems, accompanied by evocative and thought-provoking media/politician quotes for pieces capturing elements of the covid pandemic and lockdown. That collection focus brings the poems together to create something that gives more when read as a whole rather than dipping in and out, all while still managing an impressive range of poetic form and approach. Although there’s a sad/lonely edge to many poems, there’s also hope (like the book title, which may be read in several ways, many of us are still are still here) and a playful element, as in ‘Mirror, Signal, Manoeuvre’ likening walking during the pandemic to having to treat (‘drive’) the human body like a vehicle. I really enjoyed reading You are here, and I found ‘Hugging’ and ‘Uncharted’ particularly moving and ‘may i live’ and the closing haiku both moving and hope/life-filled.

Burne Jones and the Fox by Anna Saunders (Indigo Dreams, 2016)

To my shame, I missed this book when it first came out and wasn’t aware of it until after I’d entered Darling Blue in the Geoff Stevens Memorial Poetry Prize 2024. By then it was out of stock at Indigo Dreams but I desperately wanted to get hold of a copy somehow and was really delighted that Anna still had one in her own stock. I was excited to read poems by a fellow lover of Burne Jones’s art and this collection’s sequence of poems inspired by Burne-Jones (life and work) are ones that bear that excitement, and then some. The same is true of the other poems here. The sequence’s final poem merges seamlessly into other poems featuring foxes, as well as other animals, with the moon, nature and myth as further threads linking the whole collection. Throughout, the imagery and lines are vivid and striking. They’re also very moving poems in which every word really does pull its weight evocatively, emotionally and in terms of sound and rhythm. Even when there’s an edge of menace, loss or darkness or depression, this is handled so beautifully that it still leaves me keen to read on, wanting more. It’s very much a collection to love and admire!

Eurydice in The Ruined House by Anna Saunders (Indigo Dreams, 2025)

I was lucky enough to hear Anna share a selection from this collection in an online reading that made me want to buy the book. I wasn’t disappointed. This is myth as many things, inventively re-depicting these well-known characters, drawing on their stories and ageless facets of human nature but also acting a magnifying glass for our world and our roles in our world, questioning and dreaming, contrasting, revealing and sometimes ruining. The resulting ruined house is many things simultaneously, the poems evocative, enticing and addictively re-readable. As the following quote from ‘A Lesson from the Ruined House’ puts it: “How beautiful is the ruin,/more enchanting than the intact.”

Wolves at My Door by Ansuya Patel (Indigo Dreams, 2025)

This stunning collection was joint winner with my Darling Blue of the Geoff Stevens Memorial Poetry Prize 2024. It’s hard to justice to Wolves at My Door in a short review as the poems are so exquisite. The book offers a beautiful mostly heart-breaking narrative, with precise imagery, striking lines, and evoking strong emotions. There’s so much packed in to both what is included and what’s there to be read between the lines that I know I’ll spot and be delighted (if also struck emotionally) by something new no matter how many times I re-read. As this quote from ‘I Had Asked for You’ wonderfully puts it: “[…] my heart plays table tennis/with my mind.[…]” But this micro-review is just a brief, and very inadequate, summing up of a collection I’d recommend to all my poetry-loving friends.

it was never about the kingfisher by Helen Kay (Dithering Chaps, 2025)

I first came across Helen’s poetry through V. Press, publishing her wonderful pamphlet This Lexia & Other Languages in 2020. (If you don’t have a copy, I’d really recommend getting one.) Helen’s name often features in competition winners’ lists and I was lucky enough to hear her read beautifully from this new collection at Wirral Poetry Festival this year. The poems inside are just as, if not even more wonderful, on the page. It was never about the kingfisher is a striking, moving and memorable collection of important moments/experiences – some sharp and painful but also gorgeous, joyous ones. As the title poem reminds us: “The thrill is that new things still happen,/that its thin call threads me over icy waves.”

For full disclosure, the next three poetry collections are ones that I haven’t had chance to immerse myself in fully yet but where I’ve so enjoyed dipping in and out of the poems that I really want to include them here today.

feel everything by Ruth Stacey (The Knives, Forks and Spoons Press, 2025)

This extensive book is not just an impressive poetry collection but also an incredible achievement, combining PhD level research with poems that a non-academic reader can also enjoy, drawing on and inventively recreating aspects of Pamela Colman Smith’s life, art and work. This book looks and reads beautifully, from the range of form (and their shape on the page) of the poems themselves and the illustrations included. At times dreamy, other times startling, sharp and moving, all the poems I’ve enjoyed so far are very evocative and atmospheric.

Hear the World Explode by Jenny Robb (Yaffle Press)

This is a collection of womanhood and family, memories and ageing but above all living, in all its wonderful and messy aspects. These are poems of vivid meaningful details, and striking lines and imagery. They’re also full of energy and very moving, sometimes painfully and achingly so. To quote from the opening, title, poem: “Can you hear our pulses beat and rhyme/and the buzz of gadgets in the house?” The answer here is definitely yes!

Earwig Country by Angela Topping (Valley Press, 2024)

The second poem in this collection, ‘Mother of Pearl’, bids us to “See how the button’s outward face / plays with light as I turn it, […]” and this sums up the poems here too – lit by wonderful imagery, striking details and vivid word choices, even when life and memories have dark or sharp edges. Dipping in and out of these poems, I felt a quiet wonder-inducing breath at work within and threading through and behind every line. A beautiful and moving collection!

This is just a snapshot round-up of a small number of the poetry titles I’ve enjoyed recently. I wish I could read and write more but the time I have available to do so is currently in short supply. Next year, there are considerable new challenges that V. Press will have to find a working approach to. I also have my own new collection Darling Blue (Indigo Dreams, Oct 2025) to continue promoting – if you’re interested in reviewing it or can offer me a festival/reading/spoken-word event reading, please do email me. As I’m set too to become an extremely-young!-grandma early next summer, I suspect realistically it’s unlikely I’ll have chance to do more micro-reviews. I do hope you’ve enjoyed these though and that I’ll continue to fit in occasional journal (pamphlet) reviews. Here’s to a peaceful, warm and wonder-filled 2026 for us all!

My big news is that Darling Blue is now officially out there — with big thanks to Dawn and Ronnie at Indigo Dreams for all their work on the typesetting and design, and getting it out to readers now! And to Luke Kennard and Pre-Raphaelite Society Poet-in-Residence Sarah Doyle for their wonderful endorsements!

JOINT WINNER of the Geoff Stevens Memorial Poetry Prize 2024, Darling Blue interweaves ekphrastic poems with a book-length fictional poetry narrative of love, lust and letting go. The poems inspired by Pre-Raphaelite artworks include QR codes, which readers can scan to view the pieces after or alongside their reading. Blue here is more than a colour or inspiration; it is desire, secrecy and sorrow – the essence of ‘feeling / really alive’, yet ‘distance’s illusion’.

“A fascinating creative hybrid weaving ekphrasis and cohesive narrative, Darling Blue deftly balances its fictional speaker’s personal response to various Pre-Raphaelite artworks, with rich descriptive hints that resonate way beyond the mere visual. Exploring the complex tensions between the public sphere and private activities, this collection is a gallery tour of the narrator’s unfulfilling relationship with an unattainable partner, through to the ultimate redemption of self-worth and new love. James’s finely crafted and intelligently controlled poems brim with vivid imagery and lush sensory detail, reminding the reader ‘how brightly sunlight shines through // when freed from a cracked mirror’.”
Sarah Doyle, Pre-Raphaelite Society Poet-in-Residence

“James uses the lyric and ekphrasis to create a profound and moving collection on the cost of love; what endures and how we survive its wake. As vivid and emotive as its pre-Raphaelite sources, Darling Blue is also startlingly direct, eloquent and consoling on the things we find hardest to put into words. An unmissable collection.”
Luke Kennard

The official publication date was 29 October and you can buy it from Indigo Dreams here, or as part of a book bundle from me here. This page also has more info and links to sample poems too. You can also email if you’d like a signed copy, or come and enjoy some live readings and a general poetry party feel at one of the launch events lined up. (See the end of this post for the 22 November launch in Droitwich and my general events page for other launches, readings and highlights already lined up and as new ones come in.)

A feature about Darling Blue (Indigo Dreams, 2025) with two sample poems, Bluebell Blue and Your Fingers, can be enjoyed in a Creative Writing Leicester feature here.

And the collection has also had its first reviews. Big thanks to Mab Jones for hers in Buzz and to Emma Lee for her detailed and considered review. Snippets from both can be found below, along with links to the full reviews.

“[…] Many of the poems are ekphrastic in nature, i.e. written in response to artworks. Interwoven with these is a personal poetry narrative telling a tale of love, desire, and parting. This is a compelling and original pairing; and James is deft in her threading of them, so that the twin stories shimmer, mirror, and loop together elegantly. […]
“Altogether, Darling Blue is tender and compassionate; daring and yet also finely rendered. […] this book, despite its longing and loss, enlivens and lifts up the reader, too. Remarkable.”
Mab Jones, Buzz, full review here

“Through “Darling Blue”, Sarah James has created two complementary threads. One is the doomed (fictional) affair of a woman with a married man that watches her move from the delusion of love to acceptance that she too was complicit in romanticising something tawdry. The wife is outside the frame: it’s not known if she knows of the affair or if the husband is a serial cheat. But there is a strong sense of self-discovery on the speaker’s part. The affair has enabled her to try out a role and learn what love is not. The ekphrastic poems add to the commentary: the speaker’s reaction to Crane’s “Neptune’s Horses” moves from awe at their power to identification where she takes back control after she realises that she was fooling herself. It’s a collection that rewards re-reading, a slow walk through a gallery, taking time to sit with each piece and choose to focus on the whole or a fragment, ask why a particular shade of blue was chosen or marvel at how the brushstrokes direct the light and the viewer’s eye, guiding it to see what the artist wants to reveal.”
Emma Lee, full review here

I’m chuffed to have had have two poetryfilms included in this year’s Wirral Poetry Festival Video Anthology. ‘Darling Blue’ and ‘The Day-Dreams’ are my poetryfilm versions of two poems from my collection Darling Blue (Indigo Dreams, 2025). They’re both inspired by Pre-Raphaelite art, including Millais’ ‘Little Speedwell’s Darling Blue’ from the Lady Lever Art Gallery in Port Sunlight. It’s wonderful to have them in the festival anthology, which was screened at the Lady Lever Art Gallery as part of this year’s festival and is now online on the festival website here.

OTHER NEWS

I’m also very pleased to be doing two poetry and art features for The High Window next year. The first will probably focus on combining photography and poetry in animated gifs, perhaps as a stepping stone towards poetryfilm, This will be followed by a feature on poetryfilm specifically.

The past fortnight also brought news on Instagram that my poem The Longest Moment has been longlisted in the Black Cat Poetry Press ‘Turning Point’ competition and will be published in an anthology out next year.

I’m very pleased to have my poem A Scent of Pine published on Black Nore Review in September, A Last Supper in The Lake in October and The art of cutting and stitching on Ink Sweat & Tears in October. My poem On Durham Heritage Coast has also just been published in the competition anthology What We Inherit from Water (Yaffle’s Nest, 2025).

I’m delighted to have had three art-inspired prose poems — The Language of Clouds, Notes for my successor and Gallery Impressions — published in Poetry Out Loud UK, issue 7, 2025.

I’ve always loved unusual poetry objects and projects. Earlier this summer, I was asked for permission to use one of my poems structurally unsafe for a poetry reed diffuser produced by Urban Ganges. The photo to the left gives an idea of what this look like and more information and ordering can be found on their website here

I was also delighted to take part in the third iteration of the massive collaborative arts game TELEPHONE, this time involving around 1,395 artists from 933 cities in 65 countries. You can enjoy my poetryfilm Please hear us! here in video form within the game (with its neighbouring links) or here for my video plus the text. (Click on the second dot above the poetryfilm screen to see the text-only version.) This was my part of passing on the message as I understood it from the inspirational music passed to me.

My gratitude and thanks to the editors and creators for these opportunities and for all the hard work that goes into running a small press publication/such projects for writers and readers; it is very much appreciated.

DARLING BLUE LAUNCH

Saturday, 22 November 2025 — Darling Blue launch with Worcestershire Poetry Society Stanza Guest Poets

 
Date: Saturday, 22 November 2025
Times: 3-7pm whole event; reading: 3.30-5.30pm (Not a 2-hour reading, just the slot within which the readings will take place, drop in at any point the rest of the time!)
Venue: The Gallery (upstairs) at Droitwich Library (Victoria Square, Droitwich Spa, WR9 8DQ, UK
FREE but ticketed on Eventbrite
Please see full event details on Eventbrite for further details, including accessibility and intended age range

This blogpost starts with a quick FAQ for my new poetry collection Darling Blue (Indigo Dreams, Oct 2025), which is now available to pre-order from Indigo Dreams. The questions are based on things people have asked me while I was writing it.

Why ‘blue’?

At one level, ‘Darling Blue’ references one of the poems in the book, ‘Darling Blue’, which in turn references and is inspired by John Everett Millais’s ‘The Little Speedwell’s Darling Blue’ (an oil on canvas, 1891-92). ‘Blue’ is also the secret nickname of one of the main characters — because of his eye colour, because it’s a colour that strikes him in art and because it reminds the main female narrator of him. Blue is many things, in life and in this collection. Associated with sadness, water, good weather…it is also a colour that painters can obsess over. Pre-Raphaelite work is the main art focus and inspiration in this collection. But blue is a colour that has spoken to and held specific value for many artists. [French artist Yves Klein even created his own shade of blue, as referred to in ‘Into the blue’ which can be found in my previous collection, Blood Sugar, Sex, Magic (Verve Poetry Press,2022)].

Why a fictional narrative threading this collection together rather than a historical one?

The narrative is partially inspired by the entangled lives that some painters and their models have. But this again applies not just to the Pre-Raphaelites or any specific social period. What I wanted to do most of all in my approach to my artistic inspiration was capture not what might gain the attention of academics, art-experts or historians only but their appeal to everyday contemporary viewers and why they still feel relevant and beautiful now. For me, part of this is placing them in a contemporary context, with contemporary characters considering them and making sense of them within their own narratives and contemporary pressures. Some elements of this may be similar to what appealed and went into their creation at the time. But other reactions and interpretations may be different to those of their original historical context. For me, art/art-appreciation is subjective and contextual. I value work that can stand up to the test of time, retaining beauty and relevance now, not just when viewed from their place/perspective in history.

Who is your favourite Pre-Raphaelite artist?

This is a tough one because I tend to rate and respond to paintings as individual pieces, regardless of who painted them or how they fit alongside other works by them or other artists working at the same time or in the same/similar art movement(s). I might love one painting by an artist and then hate the next piece of theirs that I come across. And this is without adding in the fact that I’m discovering new art all the time — Pre-Raphaelite and otherwise. If forced to choose, I’d probably say that based on what I’ve enjoyed so far, I’d expect to be most likely to relate to and appreciate art by Edward Burne-Jones or John William Waterhouse.

So, that’s three of the things, I’ve had people ask me about. If you have a question about Darling Blue, my inspiration, the narrative strand or the writing of the poems more generally, then drop me a line — either using the comments on the website or by emailing me at lifeislikeacherrytreeATyahooDOTcom, and I’ll do another blogpost or add them and my answers to a page on the website that I’m going to set up for this.

 

OTHER NEWS

I’m unbelievably delighted to have two poetryfilms in this year’s Wirral Poetry Festival Video Anthology. ‘Darling Blue’ and ‘The Day-Dreams’ are my poetryfilm versions of two poems from my forthcoming collection Darling Blue (Indigo Dreams, 2025). They’re both inspired by Pre-Raphaelite art, including Millais’ ‘Little Speedwell’s Darling Blue’ from the Lady Lever Art Gallery in Port Sunlight. It’s wonderful to have them in the festival anthology, which will be screened at the Lady Lever Art Gallery on Saturday, 4 October, 2025. This is a free event and more details about this can be found here. I’ll be going up in person myself again this year, having had an amazing time last year, and I’m very much looking forward to enjoying some of the other readings and events. The full festival programme can be found here.

I’m delighted to have my poems Schrödinger’s Kitten and The Lost Garden’s Poison Patch, which were shortlisted in Artemesia Arts Poetry Competition 2025, published in the competition anthology, Sea of Serenity (Mosaique Press, 2025).

My poem, More than plums, which was highly commended in the Siegfried Sassoon Fellowship Annual Poetry Competition, has been published in Siegfried’s Journal: Volume 48 in September 2025.

I’m also really pleased to have my poem A Scent of Pine accepted for Black Nore Review The art of cutting and stitching for Ink, Sweat & Tears and A Last Supper for the October issue of The Lake. Big thanks to editors Ben Banyard, Helen Ivory, Kate Birch and John Murphy.

REVIEWING

I’m very pleased to have had the chance to review Deryn Rees-Jones’s beautiful new collection, Hôtel Amour (Seren 2025), for London Grip. It’s a fairly long piece but still barely touches the surface of this wonderful shape-shifting collection. You can find the review here.

 

NEW SUBSTACK

I’ve recently set up a Substack, reedlike: whispering through wind & water. This is very much in its early stages and is likely to develop and change as I see what is and isn’t possible and what readers want from it.

At the moment, this is very much a space with content aimed primarily at other readers/writers, along with some pieces that may be of interest to walkers, nature-lovers, photographers and artists.

This already includes experience-led writer-life posts and prompts but will hopefully develop to also encompass how-to pieces, reader discussion and poem analysis pieces and more academic style articles.

If you’re already on Substack, my handle there is @moresarah and you can view the page here.

You can also subscribe to it by filling in the form below.

Happy reading, writing and inspiration!

I’m delighted to share news that I had 2 poems shortlisted in the MIST & MOUNTAIN INTERNATIONAL POETRY PRIZE 2024-25, with After the Storm highly commended. It’s always wonderful when poems strike a chord with readers, so my thanks to the judges and all involved in making this competition happen. A poetry film version of After the Storm can also be enjoyed below.

I’m also very pleased to have been highly commended in the Siegfried Sassoon Fellowship Annual Poetry Competition.

Another poem, More than Castles in the Air, was shortlisted (top 10) and highly commended in Ludlow Town Walls Trust Poetry Competition.

Big thanks to the organisers and judges for both these competitions. Also, to all involved in making the celebration of Ludlow in words event such a great evening, by interweaving poets reading their poems into an interesting talk and visual/photographic presentation by Colin Richards about the town and its history.

It was lovely to hear I had 2 poems shortlisted too in Artemesia Arts Poetry Competition 2025 — big thanks to Artemesia and judge Jo Bell. An anthology is due out soon — so watch this space for more details to come!

I’ve also had a poem shortlisted for the poetry category of the Cheshire Prize for Literature 2024/25 — my thanks to the organisers, judge and all those involved in putting together the prize anthology to be launched later this year.

I was also pleased to be longlisted (top 20 out of 459 entries) in The Plaza Poetry Prize (40 lines max) 2025 judged by George Szirtes. Again, much gratitude to all involved with this.

For those who enjoy listening to poetry as well as reading it, iamb is a wonderful and beautiful curation of audio poetry. I’m very pleased to be in wave 22 of this project! My poems An Atlas of Tears, My son’s room and The River Girl (which will be in my forthcoming Indigo Dreams collection Darling Blue) can be read and listened to here. Big thanks to Mark Antony Owen, Creator & Curator, for including me in the project.

I’m also very pleased to have my poem rum and raisin published in The Fig Tree Anthology 2024. Big thanks to The Fig Tree editor Tim Fellows for all the work he’s put into this beautiful book and the anthology launches.

I’m delighted too that These Bodies, which was highly commended in the Rosemary McLeish Poetry Prize 2024, has been published in Confluence, issue 17.

I’ve been so busy with V. Press, that my novel has taken most of my free writing time when I’ve had any. But I’m very pleased also to have a new poem, Wild-swimming, published in Underbelly, issue 4.

A video/film version is also now on Poetry Archive, and can be watched below.
 

 

REVIEW NEWS

When life is busy, it can get hard to prioritise reading. I was delighted therefore to get the chance to do so, reviewing Pam Thompson’s fabulous pamphlet Sub/urban Legends (Paper Swans Press, 2025) for London Grip. Click here to find out more about why I found it such a striking and enjoyable read.

 

EVENT NEWS

I’m delighted to be the guest poet for Poetry Whitchurch’s online (zoom) September event on Monday, 15 September 2025 from 8-9pm.

I will be reading from my collection Blood Sugar, Sex, Magic (Verve Poetry Press, 2022), which won the CP Aware Award Prize for Poetry 2021 and was highly commended in the Forward Prizes. These poems draw on 40 years of living with type one diabetes, a life-threatening autoimmune condition that is treatable, if still incurable. The book also explores other everyday instances of love, nature and beauty, taking in motherhood, aging and establishing self-identity in a constantly updating world.

I will also be giving a foretaste of my collection Darling Blue, which won the Geoff Stevens Memorial Poetry Prize 2024 and is forthcoming with Indigo Dreams. This collection combines ekphrastic poems inspired by the Pre-Raphaelites with a modern fictional personal narrative (love/lust story) designed to reflect some artists’ lifestyles, as well as drawing on links between artistic and romantic passion.

The evening is free and includes an open mic. More details here.

Is the rain to blame for a reflective start here to 2025? Probably not. There are generally, to answer the question in Pablo Neruda’s beautiful The Book of Questions, III, fewer things sadder than a train standing in the rain. But light and happy news hasn’t been so abundant on the world stage, as well as a personal health scare. The proverbial silver lining to the latter though is the immense sense of fortune and gratitude of coming through it, determined more than ever not to waste a second of my ‘one wild and precious life’ as Mary Oliver calls it in her beautiful poem ‘The Summer Day‘.

What that looks like here ranges from reading and quiet walks along the canal towpath to birthday celebrations with friends and family, and planning for my elder son’s wedding later this year. And March has brought some sunny days and signs of spring. Even when working, the extra light through the windows feels great!

This year also marks 10 years of V. Press publishing other writers’ solo poetry and flash fiction books, with lots of celebrations planned across 2025, highlighting past titles and new developments to come. Running the press has been a big thing for me, both wonderful and, at times, exhausting. I’m very grateful for all the talented writers who’ve trusted me with their work and proud to have published such stunning titles. You can find out more about V. Press here. And don’t forget to sign-up to the Mailchimp newsletters (in the right hand bar of the V. Press website) to keep up with what we’re up to.

AND 25 YEARS OF MY WRITING, 15 SINCE MY FIRST COLLECTION!

Poetry winners 2024

First: Sarah James, ‘Let sleeping peaches lie’

Second: Rachel Curzon, ‘Winter in Dinan’

Third: Nicola Warwick, ‘What of the end, Pandora’

Poet-in-Res commendation: HLR, ‘I take all of my lovers to Highgate Cemetery’

Chair: Nicola Warwick, ‘Briar Rose’ pic.twitter.com/6Lzh2ques2

— PreRaphaeliteSociety (@PreRaphSoc) March 3, 2025

On a personal writing front, I’m really delighted to share that my poem Let sleeping peaches lie has won first prize in the Pre-Raphaelite Society’s Poetry Prize 2024. My poem is inspired by Sir Frederick Leighton’s ‘Flaming June’ and continues the Pre-Raphaelite ekphrastic poetry element of my collection Darling Blue, due out with Indigo Dreams later this year. It was an extra delight to see V. Press poet Nicola Warwick in the prize list too — with 2 poems! Big thanks to PRS and the judges, Poet-in-Residence Sarah Doyle and PRS Chair Serena Trowbridge.



I’m pleased to have started the New Year with a link back to 2024, when I had a haiku (‘From yesterday’s rain…’) and through our windows, 5-linked haiku, published (with audio) in Wildfire Words.

I’m delighted to have had my poem Closer to the roof, first published in The High Window last year, translated into Polish by Anna Blasiak for Babiniec Literacki.

Meanwhile, my first publication of 2025 was A new morning in The Fig Tree, issue 6, and I’m also very pleased to have another poem, The Other Side of the Moon, published in The Fig Tree, issue 7. Big thanks again to editor Tim Fellows.

I’m also delighted and very grateful to have From the ‘News of the World’ Astro-Desk and Our New Estate published in The Dribble Drabble Review Anthology 2: Issues VI-X in Jan 2025.

I’ve had a photo First Light and two eco-poems, The Leaves, Birds and Me and These warm days, published on the wonderful Mugwort Magazine here. Big thanks to editor Kate Garrett for this.

I’m also very pleased to hear this month that I have two images, A ghost of the past and Going softly into the light, and two poems, Dark Longings and “Now, about your room…”, accepted for the second issue of New Lyricist. Big thanks to the editors Ingrid Wilson and Nick Reeves.

Moving forward from looking back on a personal writing front is hopefully cracking on with my novel, using the creative energy of flash and poetry to fuel my progress. I’m not sure it’s the done thing to cry while reworking one’s own novel, let alone admit it. But I love my characters so much and would really love to be able to move on from re-writing to pitching soon. Only if they and the story are reading for that though. Please keep your fingers crossed for us!

Wishing you all the very best of seasonal greetings for the festive season and start of 2025!

My first writing news for this post is that I’m stoked to have a haiku (the one featured in my image above) published in the Paper Swans Press advent calendar! You can find it here, and, for the full festive experience, do also enjoy the other short advent-calendar poems on the Paper Swans Press instagram profile.

I’m really delighted to share that my poem These Bodies was highly commended in the Rosemary McLeish Poetry Prize 2024, which had a theme of ‘Climate’ and ‘Climate Change. The full prize details and results can be found here.

I was delighted to find out that The Dribble Drabble Review has nominated my drabble Our New Estate for BEST MICROFICTION 2025! Big thanks to Keith and The Dribble Drabble Review for the nomination and publishing my drabble. The review pairs pieces with such beautiful art, it’s always a delight to be included. Congratulations to all those nominated! You can find Our New Estate and other wonderful pieces here.

I’m pleased too to have work in a number of recent anthologies, including Clearing (flash fiction) in Amid the Alien Corn, the 2024 Worcestershire LitFest flash fiction Anthology.

I’ve had a string of poetry publications in books that might make nice presents. These include Tectonic Time, which was joint winner of the TORCH and Oxford University Poetry Society deep time poetry competition 2021, published in Writing (like) Animals: The Ash 2024 anthology, available from Oxford University Poetry Society here.

Also, Owerblawing in the Christmas-Winter Volume 5 (2024) anthology from Black Bough Poetry — full details here — and An Invisible Flame in the Sunday Mornings at the River Poetry Diary 2025, which can be found on Amazon in the UK here and is also available on Amazon in the US | UK | DE | FR | ES | IT | NL | PL | SE | JP | CA | AU.

I’m very pleased to have my poem rum and raisin in The Fig Tree, issue 5 in November 2024. This poem was previously a runner-up (unpublished) in the Oxford Poetry Library taste-themed poetry competition in May 2024.

I’m also chuffed to have two poems, Schrödinger’s Gaff and Closer to the Roof published in The High Window, Winter 2024.

It was absolutely wonderful to be back in Lichfield, where I used to live and work as a news reporter in the late nineties and early noughties, to headline for Poetry Alight in November. The evening, hosted by Janet Jenkins and Gary Longden, included a cracking open mic and lovely audience. It was amazing to share poems from Blood Sugar, Sex, Magic and Darling Blue to such a packed appreciative audience and energising to see how many people are still enjoying, writing and performing poetry. (If you’re based that way, do check out Lichfield Poets and Poetry Alight on Facebook.) With my Staffordshire links, it was also extra wonderful to catch up with long-time poetry friends, some of whom I’ve known from the very start of my poetry life. One of these is Gary Carr, who’s also an excellent photographer and took these beautiful photos of my reading. Big thanks to him for allowing me to use these, to Janet and Gary L for inviting me to headline and to all the poets and audience members for making it such an amazing night.