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Plenty-Fish
From the cover: “Sarah James’ precise and astonishing poetry invites us to taste and touch the flavours, shapes, memory and experiences for ourselves, the tang of sea-salt tempering the irresistible physicality of these adventurous poems.
Here, the natural and emotional worlds merge in kaleidoscopic colours and all around us, nature runs riot. Humans are organisms in an ever-growing, changing and vanishing habitat; the family an ecosystem complicated by love, loss and letting go. The poems gather and swirl about you, a shoal of brilliant, electric moments. The water may be deep and clear, but the undertow is strong and dark, and sharp enough to cut to the bone.”
Here, the natural and emotional worlds merge in kaleidoscopic colours and all around us, nature runs riot. Humans are organisms in an ever-growing, changing and vanishing habitat; the family an ecosystem complicated by love, loss and letting go. The poems gather and swirl about you, a shoal of brilliant, electric moments. The water may be deep and clear, but the undertow is strong and dark, and sharp enough to cut to the bone.”
- GenresPoetry
80 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 2015
About the author
Sarah James
10 books7 followersSarah James/Sarah Leavesley/S.A. Leavesley is an award-winning poet, fiction writer, journalist and photographer, as well as an occasional playwright, poetryfilm-maker, arts reviewer and editor at V. Press.
Author of five poetry collections, four poetry pamphlets, a poetry-play, an ACE-funded multi-media hypertext poetry narrative > Room and two novellas, she also enjoys artistic commissions, mentoring and working as a writer in residence, and was delighted to be The High Window Resident Artist for 2019.
Eight out of nine of Sarah’s solo poetry titles have won or been shortlisted/highly commended for an award.
Her eco-inspired pamphlet, RAIN FALLING (Wigtown Festival Company, 2023), won the Wigtown Poetry Prize Alastair Reid Pamphlet Prize 2022.
Sarah’s CP Aware Award Prize for Poetry 2021 collection Blood Sugar, Sex, Magic (Verve Poetry Press, 2022) was also highly commended in the Forward Prizes and shortlisted for the International Rubery Book Award 2023.
Meanwhile, her Overton Poetry Prize 2020 chapbook Ten Lines of More Than Just Love Notes also came out with Loughborough University in 2022.
Sarah’s other recently published books include a poetry pamphlet How to Grow Matches (Against The Grain Press), shortlisted in the International Rubery Book Awards 2018, finalist in the international Eyelands Book Awards 2019 and a poem featured as Guardian Poem of the Week, and a novella Always Another Twist (Mantle Lane Press, 2018). This is a sequel or companion novella to her novella Kaleidoscope, published by Mantle Lane Press in March 2017.
Other poetry titles include: Overton Poetry Prize pamphlet, Lampshades & Glass Rivers (Loughborough University, 2016), and the full-length poetry collection plenty-fish, published by Nine Arches Press in July 2015, previewed at Ledbury Poetry Festival and shortlisted in the International Rubery Book Awards 2016.
Working in both experimental and more mainstream styles, her The Magnetic Diaries (Knives, Forks and Spoons Press, 2015), is a modern narrative in poems based on Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary, and incorporating a supplementary multimedia element. The Magnetic Diaries was highly commended in the Forward Prize. Sarah’s one-act poetry-play version of the collection was selected for and performed by Reaction Theatre Makers at the 2015 Write On Festival at Hereford’s The Courtyard theatre, a ‘highly recommended show’ during its 2-week run at Edinburgh Fringe 2016 and on an ACE-funded 2016 tour including Ledbury Poetry Festival, Birmingham MAC and London’s The Vaults.
Her individual poems have won or been shortlisted for many prizes, including winning the Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine. She has had poems published by the Financial Times, the Guardian, The Forward Book of Poetry, on Worcestershire buses and in the Blackpool Illuminations.
Sarah’s other work includes editing, mentoring, facilitating workshops, commissions, residencies and festival readings. Her poetry has featured on the BBC, in poetryfilms and on radio.
She is also a published essay and CNF writer, longlisted in the New Welsh Writing Awards 2018: Aberystwyth University Prize for an Essay Collection and for the memoir prize in the New Welsh Writing Awards 2017.
Her website is at www.sarah-james.co.uk and she runs V. Press, a poetry and flash imprint shortlisted in The Michael Marks Publishers’ Award 2017 (http://vpresspoetry.blogspot.co.uk).
Her books include:
RAIN FALLING (Wigtown Festival Company, 2023), poetry pamphlet, winner of the Wigtown Poetry Prize Alastair Reid Pamphlet Prize 2022;
Blood Sugar, Sex, Magic (Verve Poetry Press, 2022), poetry collection, winner of the CP Aware Award Prize for Poetry 2021, highly commended in the Forward Prizes and shortlisted for the International Rubery Book Award 2023;
Ten Lines of More Than Just Love Notes (Loughborough University, 2022), poetry pamphlet, winner of the Overton Poetry Prize 2020 chapbook;
Always Another Twi
Author of five poetry collections, four poetry pamphlets, a poetry-play, an ACE-funded multi-media hypertext poetry narrative > Room and two novellas, she also enjoys artistic commissions, mentoring and working as a writer in residence, and was delighted to be The High Window Resident Artist for 2019.
Eight out of nine of Sarah’s solo poetry titles have won or been shortlisted/highly commended for an award.
Her eco-inspired pamphlet, RAIN FALLING (Wigtown Festival Company, 2023), won the Wigtown Poetry Prize Alastair Reid Pamphlet Prize 2022.
Sarah’s CP Aware Award Prize for Poetry 2021 collection Blood Sugar, Sex, Magic (Verve Poetry Press, 2022) was also highly commended in the Forward Prizes and shortlisted for the International Rubery Book Award 2023.
Meanwhile, her Overton Poetry Prize 2020 chapbook Ten Lines of More Than Just Love Notes also came out with Loughborough University in 2022.
Sarah’s other recently published books include a poetry pamphlet How to Grow Matches (Against The Grain Press), shortlisted in the International Rubery Book Awards 2018, finalist in the international Eyelands Book Awards 2019 and a poem featured as Guardian Poem of the Week, and a novella Always Another Twist (Mantle Lane Press, 2018). This is a sequel or companion novella to her novella Kaleidoscope, published by Mantle Lane Press in March 2017.
Other poetry titles include: Overton Poetry Prize pamphlet, Lampshades & Glass Rivers (Loughborough University, 2016), and the full-length poetry collection plenty-fish, published by Nine Arches Press in July 2015, previewed at Ledbury Poetry Festival and shortlisted in the International Rubery Book Awards 2016.
Working in both experimental and more mainstream styles, her The Magnetic Diaries (Knives, Forks and Spoons Press, 2015), is a modern narrative in poems based on Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary, and incorporating a supplementary multimedia element. The Magnetic Diaries was highly commended in the Forward Prize. Sarah’s one-act poetry-play version of the collection was selected for and performed by Reaction Theatre Makers at the 2015 Write On Festival at Hereford’s The Courtyard theatre, a ‘highly recommended show’ during its 2-week run at Edinburgh Fringe 2016 and on an ACE-funded 2016 tour including Ledbury Poetry Festival, Birmingham MAC and London’s The Vaults.
Her individual poems have won or been shortlisted for many prizes, including winning the Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine. She has had poems published by the Financial Times, the Guardian, The Forward Book of Poetry, on Worcestershire buses and in the Blackpool Illuminations.
Sarah’s other work includes editing, mentoring, facilitating workshops, commissions, residencies and festival readings. Her poetry has featured on the BBC, in poetryfilms and on radio.
She is also a published essay and CNF writer, longlisted in the New Welsh Writing Awards 2018: Aberystwyth University Prize for an Essay Collection and for the memoir prize in the New Welsh Writing Awards 2017.
Her website is at www.sarah-james.co.uk and she runs V. Press, a poetry and flash imprint shortlisted in The Michael Marks Publishers’ Award 2017 (http://vpresspoetry.blogspot.co.uk).
Her books include:
RAIN FALLING (Wigtown Festival Company, 2023), poetry pamphlet, winner of the Wigtown Poetry Prize Alastair Reid Pamphlet Prize 2022;
Blood Sugar, Sex, Magic (Verve Poetry Press, 2022), poetry collection, winner of the CP Aware Award Prize for Poetry 2021, highly commended in the Forward Prizes and shortlisted for the International Rubery Book Award 2023;
Ten Lines of More Than Just Love Notes (Loughborough University, 2022), poetry pamphlet, winner of the Overton Poetry Prize 2020 chapbook;
Always Another Twi
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 5, 2018
This is poetry unrestricted by rhyme and metre. Pure, unadulterated prose. Sarah James allows her poems total freedom of shape and language. The imagery is so vivid, awakening all the senses of the reader. You can touch, smell, hear, taste and see all before you. There is also a keen sense of the emotional aspects depicted in these works of art, whether they are joyous or disturbing, or occasionally grieving. Don't just read these once and file the book away. Make sure that you re-read, allowing those images the opportunity to clarify fully in your mind, the voice behind each poem becoming clearer with each read. Each one an individual with its own personality.
A truly unique series of poems to immerse the reader in its cinematic aura.
A truly unique series of poems to immerse the reader in its cinematic aura.
May 6, 2016
Excellent! A mixture of poems for adults to enjoy. I am no poetry expert, so I personally find it hard to review poetry, but I enjoyed this book.
Received as Goodreads giveaway.
Received as Goodreads giveaway.
January 7, 2018
I received a free copy of this book as a Goodreads giveaway.
I always find that you need to be in the right frame of mind to enjoy poetry. If you are not in the zone, then much of the content and the meaning will pass you by. However, if you free yourself up a little, you will get more out of it.
There were some good pieces in this collection - others passed me by as is the case with almost all collectons I have read. Worth a read - and a good buy for those who are receptive to this kind of stuff.
I always find that you need to be in the right frame of mind to enjoy poetry. If you are not in the zone, then much of the content and the meaning will pass you by. However, if you free yourself up a little, you will get more out of it.
There were some good pieces in this collection - others passed me by as is the case with almost all collectons I have read. Worth a read - and a good buy for those who are receptive to this kind of stuff.
February 15, 2018
Plenty-Fish is a truly wonderful collection of Poetry by Sarah James. The poems cover a number of issues, such as nature, family and the world we live in. Some real gems can be found here from the mourning of a little girl that wasn’t, to the determination of the dandelion, this collection at times both amused me and moved me.
It actually took me a generous amount of time to read, because I have savoured and reread so many of the poems as I went along.
Huge thanks to the Author and Publisher, this was won as a Goodreads Giveaway.
It actually took me a generous amount of time to read, because I have savoured and reread so many of the poems as I went along.
Huge thanks to the Author and Publisher, this was won as a Goodreads Giveaway.
July 19, 2016
Shortlisted for the Rubery Book Award Poetry
Full of piercing and original imagery, Sarah James’s Plenty-Fish shows a mature and erudite poet, unafraid to explore a variety of poetic forms and fascinated by the elusive quality of words. There are cross references to popular culture, science and literature here, which give a wonderfully rich texture to James’s poems. In addition she demonstrates the wonderful ability to take risks and the courage to tackle painful as well as joyous personal experiences.
www.ruberybookaward.com
Full of piercing and original imagery, Sarah James’s Plenty-Fish shows a mature and erudite poet, unafraid to explore a variety of poetic forms and fascinated by the elusive quality of words. There are cross references to popular culture, science and literature here, which give a wonderfully rich texture to James’s poems. In addition she demonstrates the wonderful ability to take risks and the courage to tackle painful as well as joyous personal experiences.
www.ruberybookaward.com
May 28, 2025
I picked this poetry collection up in Waterstones on a whim and found the poems very moving. Since it’s an anthology, I can’t really discuss plot, but if poetry is your thing, this collection is impactful and worth reading. I really enjoyed it.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews