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A finalist in Finishing Line Press’s 2017 NEW WOMEN’S VOICES CHAPBOOK
COMPETITION, Slow Blooming Gratitudes is Vermont poet Sarah W. Bartlett’s second
chapbook. Her poems invite readers into moments of transformation, healing and presence.
"These are no ordinary poems of love, loss, letting go, courage, and universality," writes
Cynthia Brackett-Vincent, publisher and editor of the Aurorean poetry journal. "Rather
… they are extraordinary poems ... masterfully crafted … extending the hand of welcome
to each reader."
Ellaraine Lockie, award-winning poet, nonfiction author, contest judge, and educator says
the language of this collection "seeps into the reader like a slow, soft massage" in its
capacity "to offer solace and acceptance in times of adversity."
Sarah’s poetry and prose appear in Adanna, the Aurorean, Minerva Rising, PoemMemoirStory,
Mom Egg Review, Ars Medica; and highly-acclaimed anthologies, including the award-winning
Women on Poetry (McFarland & Co. Inc., 2012). Her first poetry chapbook was Into the Great
Blue: Meditations of Summer (Finishing Line Press, 2011).
In 2010, she founded writing inside VT, a weekly writing group inside Vermont’s sole women’s
prison to encourage personal and social change within a supportive community. Now in its
eighth year, the program hosts an active blog (www.writinginsideVT.com) and continues to hold
readings and book talks based on the 2013 publication of HEAR ME, SEE ME:
INCARCERATED WOMEN WRITE (Orbis Books). Sarah co-edited this anthology of writing
and art by 60 early program participants, and has published a number of pieces as well as
delivered two keynote speeches about the work.
Sarah was greatly influenced by her father, a world-class chemist devoted to making the world a
better place. From him she learned the value of community and a love of words at play. Sarah
spent the first 25 years of her professional life using language in service to planning, marketing
and public relations for non profit organizations. Sarah’s current work as change agent and poet
draws on the full range of her experience and prior training, including a doctorate in health
education from Harvard and certification as a mediator. Language remains the medium for her
life work creating communities that support individual transformation and healing through
writing, as well as her own creative writing. Like the hummingbird who has taught her to see
deep into the heart of things, she seeks to awaken the soul to presence.
Her reflections on both external and interior worlds draw from her life and homes in the Vermont
mountains and Massachusetts shore, where she lives with her husband and pets.
About the author
Bartlett's roots as nurturer and nurtured are reflected in her deeply sentient poetry. Her raw presence to the intricate folds of love, transition and loss are a gift to the reader, revealing us to ourselves through her profoundly honest sharing.
