How To Write Poetry Fantastically Well: An Interview With Sarah James

Sarah James is a jack of all trades. She’s a poet, a fiction writer, a journalist, a photographer, an editor, a book reviewer, a documentary maker, and oh she also runs a small press in the UK that publishes many influential poets. Impressive eh? Like a lot of poets, Sarah started life writing something else, in this case fiction. But after the birth of her first son she found that she didn’t have enough headspace for stories anymore, so she switched to poetry. “It just became the easiest and the most natural form to write in when I had the kids,” she said. She returned to fiction - initially flash fiction and then novellas – ten to fifteen years later, when her children were in their teens. She’s now working on a novel, among a variety of other projects, which is keeping her busier than ever before. 

Sarah’s current collection is called Darling Blue and this is the sixth full length book she’s published, along with four chapbooks as well. When I put it to her that this is a lot of work, she downplays it with typical chagrin. “It sounds a lot when you say it like that… because we are creatives we always have something else brewing.” This highlights her approach to writing – keeping busy and always being willing to try something new. So, with her latest collection that meant interweaving ekphrastic, art-inspired poems, with a book-length fictional poetry narrative of love, lust and letting go. She also decided to give each of the ekphrastic poems a QR code which readers can then scan and view the pre-Raphaelite artwork that it is connected with. It’s a more immersive experience for the reader and for her it was very interesting project to do.

 

Sarah has been battling with type one diabetes for many years and it has had a profound effect not just on her work but on her life itself. “It's possible that it's the whole reason for me writing in the first place,” she concedes. She wrote about it extensively in her previous collection, ‘Blood Sugar Sex Magic’, though that was the only book where she wrote about it explicitly. “It makes you aware of fragility, death, elements of spirituality, all of those things.” Perhaps this is why she values the validation that comes with prizes - she won the Geoff Stevens Memorial Prize in 2024 with another poet, Ansuya Patel - they are validation for her struggle against what at times can be a very debilitating condition. “I think part of the motivation for doing so much… is in a way to prove myself worthwhile, to manage to achieve something, to turn pain into something that might vaguely connect or be beautiful for other people.”

 

Despite her condition- and perhaps even because of it - Sarah enjoys taking part in book fairs, conferences, and readings. She is especially keen to chat about poetry at the various fairs she attends, though she has to keep an eye on her blood sugar levels, and unfortunately this can sometimes limit her participation. Whereas other writers can do five or six talks a week, she is rarely able to manage above two. One of the book fairs that she attends regularly is Free Verse in London. Despite the expense, she is able to cover her return train fare with book sales at the event. She particularly enjoys meeting all the publishers, readers, and poets whilst she’s there. Though she is quite an introvert- and far prefers writing to talking - she finds these events are great ways to chat to other people like her, particularly from the small presses whom she often knows quite well. “So I guess the good thing about book fairs is it's not like you're going to a networking event where you have to… small talk with people. You're on a stand with books, people come to you and you talk to them…. It's a nice way of doing it.”

 

Switching from fiction to poetry and back to fiction again, as well as running a small press has had quite an impact on her writing routine. When she first started writing poetry, she wrote every day like a lot of authors. For the past five to ten years however, she’s focused on the quality of her writing. “So if that idea is still hitting me on the head, or I've still got lines from a poem coming to me a couple of days later, because it stayed with me, then that's a piece that I actually need to get down and do something with. So I don’t feel like I’ve to write every day.” It may also have something to do with running a small press. All the various administrative duties that she attends to can be very draining at times. 

 

Sarah’s company, V Press celebrated their ten year anniversary in 2025. Over that time she has published around seventy-eight books with another two planned for later this year, with a few more that have just been taken on. On average she publishes seven or eight annually which is a considerable amount when you consider that she’s also a writer, reader, has a steady full time job, and is a mother of two boys. Then there are the competitions to enter too. The preparations for this often have to be done six months in advance, which places further strain on not just her but everyone around her. No wonder she’s unable to write every day.

 

Her advice about querying Literary Agents was particularly insightful. When she sent her last flash fiction book out, she queried six agents every 3 months before waiting for a reply. She would only send her novel out to another six when she had heard back from the first batch. She would continue like this until she had emailed all the agents on her list. “This way avoids burnout and keeps you in a constant state of emailing Agents.” Also, the theory goes, it gives you the opportunity to adjust your manuscript (if you’re lucky enough to have gotten any feedback) before sending it out to the next group. 

 

A little bit like myself, she’s had the same amount of rejection and frustration when it comes to querying Literary Agents. The most common (and often frustrating) form of rejection for Sarah is, ‘I really enjoyed it but I’m not the right person for it etc.’ Sarah has an interesting way of looking at this - she thinks it’s all down to the zeitgeist. Basically, Agents and publishers will only print what they think the reading public wants at any given time. So, if science fiction books are selling then they’ll take on more sci-fi authors, if not then they won’t entertain them, no matter how good their idea is or how well they write. Of course, the writer could change what they’ve already written to suit the zeitgeist, but that would take too much time and probably has little chance of success. Also, if you write something now that is influenced by the zeitgeist - such as Romantasy - by the time the novel is finished and is being sent out to the Agents and publishers the bubble has already burst and the people who you sent your novel to are looking for something else. Timing is everything in the publishing world. Perhaps a good way of looking at this though is that you never know when the publishing wheel is going to turn and your out of favor book becomes what every Agent wants. This is why, she says, “it’s important for you to keep on writing, keep on believing.” Something I think every writer could agree on.

You can listen to the full interview here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1021147/episodes/18398738-ep-12-with-sarah-james

Sarah James' current collection, 'Darling Blue' is available now from Indigo Dreams.