Earthquake fissures. Illustration for Popular Scientific Recreations by Gaston Tissandier (Ward Lock, 1885).
Garlic Mustard
In early summer
my friend as a favor to us both pulled up
the garlic mustard spreading
like jellyfish tide in the garden.
She was mourning.
Her partner, my friend, had suddenly died,
and this was a gift I could give her,
the way mustard roots release from the earth.
This year in a few spots
laid bare by her work, burdock
appears, choking out better things.
It will spread if unchecked, gain deeper hold.
We’ll need knives
and spades, sweat and a gardener’s rage
to dig it up. This is the way we carry
grief—in seasons, always a new and deeper ache.
(for Rebecca)
"Miss Flo at Sunset," Dominique Thiebaut, 2018. Image from Before the Mountain, Eddy/Thiebaut, 2018.
About
Sara Eddy is the author most recently of Ordinary Fissures (forthcoming from Kelsay Books in April 2024). She is also author of two chapbooks: Tell the Bees: Poem About Bees & Beekeeping (A3 Press, 2019), and Full Mouth: Poems about Food (Finishing Line Press, 2020). Her poems have appeared in many literary journals, including Threepenny Review, Baltimore Review, SWWIM, Raleigh Review, and Spank the Carp, among others.
Sara is Assistant Director of the Jacobson Center for Writing, Teaching, and Learning at Smith College, in Northampton, Massachusetts, and lives in nearby Amherst in a house built by Emily Dickinson’s cousin.
Publications
Books
Ordinary Fissures
(forthcoming April 2024, Kelsay Books)
Full-length book of poems about themes ranging from illness and wellness, divorce and starting over, child-raising, raising hell, skinny-dipping, and memory. Narrative, lyrical, and imagistic poems, arranged in three sections.
“Sara Eddy’s Ordinary Fissures is a splendid collection: dark, comic, loving, sad, disappointed, vulnerable, and—yes—confessional. These are poems both learned and filled with the language we speak, poems painfully, lyrically honest as one after the other they sing of the uncertainties attendant upon getting through each day. “
—Paul Mariani
PREORDERS AVAILABLE (contact the author)
Full Mouth
(2020, Finishing Line Press)
Chapbook of poems about food, eating, hunger, desire, and all the associations we hold with food. Written with the support of a grant from the Kahn Institute for the Humanities at Smith College, while sitting on a grant panel of scholars researching foodways. Cover art ("Vanitas") by Timothy McDowell.
“What Eddy offers us here is a globe-trotting, memory-packed, omnivorous bounty of poems that interrogate appetite in all its forms. Through the full-mouth music of Eddy’s language, this book explores family, intimacy, what nourishes and sates, and what it truly means to break bread.”
—Matt Donovan
Order from Finishing Line Press
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Contact the author for a signed copy ($20 plus shipping)
Tell the Bees
(2019, A3 Press)
Map-fold art book produced by A3 Press, which makes exquisite “Writing Maps” for writers and readers. Contains 10 poems about bees and beekeeping, plus photographs of my own bees and beehives.
“Sara Eddy's Tell the Bees is so deceptively quiet, you barely notice you've been drawn into a multi-layered world of creation, creativity, sorrow and a profound connection to the workings of the natural world.”
—Shaun Levin
Order from A3 Press
Contact the author for a signed copy ($15 plus shipping)
Before the Mountain
(2018, self-published with co-author)
Collaboration with artist and photographer Dominique Thiebaut. Images and poems of the Pioneer Valley, in western Massachusetts. Thiebaut’s photographs are lush panoramas, the work of an immigrant’s eye, and they are paired with my home-grown associative wanderings.
Contact the author for a signed copy ($30 plus shipping)
Ativan Poems
(2016)
Experimental poems written while undergoing treatment for breast cancer. To be produced as a self-published art-book with hand-sewn pages and illustrations by artist Sarah James.
Not available for order
Poems published in online
and print journals
“Red.” forthcoming in Poeming Pigeon.
“Wings.” forthcoming in Agapanthus Collective.
"Meat." West Trestle Review, January/February 2024.
"Tits Up” and “I Had a Charmed Childhood and I’ll Never Recover From It.” Anti-Heroin Chic, Issue 33, December 2023.
“Identifiers" and "Johnny's Tavern." Glint Review, issue #14, Winter 2023.
"Great Horned." Packingtown Review, vol. 20, fall 2023.
“Conversation with Sue Mellinger.” Unlost Journal #31, August 2023.
"Garlic Mustard." Quartet, Vol 3, Issue 2, spring/summer 2023.
"Aphasia." Eunoia Review, 16 June 2023.
"Lentils." Juked, March 2023.
"An America." The Museum of Americana: Americana Stories, 7 Feb 2023.
"Glaucous." Abandoned Mine Quarterly, Vol 5, February 2023.
"Flash Mob." Front Porch Review, Vol 15, January 2023.
“There Should be a God." The Baltimore Review, winter 2023.
"Tess at Mt. Pollux." Panoply, Issue 23, winter 2023.
"Spider." Sky Island, Vol 23, winter 2023.
"Bones." Molecule, 13 August 2022.
"Tell the Bees," "La Voile," and "Mousse aux Chocolat" and "Swordfish au Poivre" (the latter two sections of the longer poem "No. 9 Park"). Every Day Poetry (feature of Tweetspeak poetry--no links available)
"Close." New Note Poetry, Summer 2022.
"Bee Yard," "Fall Harvest," and "Moving the Hive." Deep Overstock, Issue 17: Beekeeping. 1 July 2022.
"Insect Mind." Rune Bear, 7 April 2022.
"Lake Eire Guesthouse." SWWIM, 17 March 2022.
"Naucrate." Pink Panther, volume 13, no. 1, 8 March 2022.
"Coming Back" and "What Binds You." 2River Review, spring 2022.
"Fledgling." Fine Print Press, issue 10. 25 January 2022.
"Buffalo Jump." Raleigh Review, vol 12.1 (print) 23 November 2021.
"At the DeCordova Museum" and "Pumice Mines." The Mantle Review issue 16, summer 2021.
“Household Gods.” Threepenny Review, Issue 166, summer 2021.
"Goldilocks" and "Heavier." LEON literary review, Issue 10, spring/summer 2021.
“Pandemic Baking.” South85, spring/summer 2021.
“Luna," "In a Valley," and "Skinnydipping." Poetica Review, 1 June 2021.
“Your Six,” “Fall on Norwottuck,” “Sisters,” “4pm Thunderstorm,” and “Your Whole Life.” Abstract Mag, January 2021.
“Summer Fling.” The Ekphrastic Review, September 2020.
“Museum of the Mind.” Telephone: an International Arts Game, 17 July 2020.
"55-inch screen." Spank the Carp, issue 54, December 2019.
"Starvation." Baltimore Review, fall 2019.
"Studio," "Not Ready," and "Hush." Raw Art Review, summer 2019.
"Removing a Colony." Heartwood, issue 7, spring 2019.
"Heron Pond," "Hair," and "A Measure." Dandelion Review, issue 3, March 2019.
"Furious." The Tishman Review, 2/17/19. (publication folded)
"A Fall." One, Jacar Press issue 17, January 2019.
"About that GIF." Sum: issue #02, Dyad, winter 2018.
"Teeth." Zingara, October 2018.
"Peach Jam." Causeway Lit, fall 2018.
"Oranges," "Stir Fry," and "First Thanksgiving." Meat for Tea, Volume 12, Issue 3, Camellia Sinensis.
"Katherine" and "Honeycake." Gyroscope Review, issue 18, volume 4, September 2018.
"Yosemite." Parks & Points, April 2018.
"Revolution." Forage, July 2017.
"Ativan Poem #3: Subterraneans." Damfino, 7 September 2017. (publication folded)
"Ede Market Day." The Book of Donuts (Anthology, Terrapin Press, 2017).
"Pelham Hills." Postcard Poems and Prose, April 2017.
"Ativan Poem #6: Pond." Surreal Poetics, issue 2, September 2016.
"Ativan Poem #8: Water sports." Panoply, July 2016.
“Tess at Mt. Pollux.” 2018. Photographer: Dominique Thiebaut.
Awards & Recognitions
photograph by Dominique Thiebaut, 6 November 2016
Finalist, Write Bloody poetry award, 2023 (for Ordinary Fissures)
Finalist, Barry Spacks award, Gunpowder Press, 2022 (for Ordinary Fissures)
shortlist, WordWorks Press, Tolsun Press, Perugia Press (for Ordinary Fissures)
“Pandemic Baking,” nominated for Best of Net by South85 journal, 17 Sept 2021
“Belly,” “Aflame,” “Fledgling,” semi-finalists in Button Eye Review summer poetry contest, 26 October 2021
“Furious,” finalist, Tishman Review Edna St. Vincent Millay Poetry Prize, February 2019
“Furious,” Nominated by the Tishman Review for Best of Net, August 2019
“Peach Jam,” Winner, Causeway Lit Poetry Contest, 1 October 2018
Reviews
“Poets and Poems: Sara Eddy—Tell the Bees and Full Mouth.” Review by Glynn Young, Tweetspeak poetry, summer 2022.
Residencies
Prospect Street Writers’ House, North Bennington, VT. Summer 2022, summer 2023.
Readings & Events
Recorded Events
Other Readings
Kahn Institute, Smith College October 2021
Anchor House of Artists, Northampton, MA 11 June 2021
Wayfinding Poetry Reading (presented by the National Parks) 26 May 2021
Munson Library, South Amherst, MA 17 February 2021
Applewood Retirement Community Library December 2020
Pioneer Valley Writers’ Workshop winter reading November 2020
Hitchcock Center, Amherst, MA February 2020
Salon Performance with musician Dave Dersham November 2019
Contact Me
I’m available for readings and workshops, or you can contact me to order signed copies of my books. You can also just say hello. Get in touch!