Sarah Jane Barnett is an Aotearoa writer and editor

Sarah’s poetry, essays, interviews and reviews have been published widely in Aotearoa journals and magazines, as well as in Australia and the US. Her work has been anthologised in Best New Zealand Poems (various years), Dear Heart: 150 New Zealand Love Poems (Godwit, 2012), Essential New Zealand Poems: Facing the Empty Page (Random House, 2014), Bonsai: Best small stories from Aotearoa (CUP, 2018), Home: New Writing (MUP, 2017), Wild Honey: Reading New Zealand women’s poetry (MUP, 2020), Out Here: An Anthology of Takatāpui and LGBTQIA+ Writers from Aotearoa (AUP 2021), and Strong Words #2: The best of the Landfall essay competition (OUP 2021).

Her debut poetry collection A Man Runs into a Woman was a finalist in the 2013 New Zealand Post Book Awards. Sarah’s second collection WORK was published in October 2015. Her poems often inhabit the lives of others, and ask how we find connection and intimacy after trauma. Her essays explore the multifaceted theme of modern womanhood. Sarah’s memoir Notes on Womanhood on womanhood and midlife was published by Otago University Press in June 2022.

Sarah works as a freelance writer, editor and creative writing teacher. She was the Literature Editor for The Pantograph Punch from 2016–2018. Some recent editing projects include He’s So Masc by Chris Tse, How to Live by Helen Rickerby, and Moth Hour by Anne Kennedy, as well as the “Environment” and “Hauora” issues of the NZEI Te Riu Roa magazine, Ako. She also works as a weaver @sarahjaneweaves.

Sarah has a Masters from the IIML and a PhD from Massey University. Her PhD examined the strategies used by North American poet Robert Hass to depict nature in his first four collections. Sarah lives in Wellington with her family. You can contact Sarah on the ‘Editing Services’ page.

Feature image by paper artist Thomas Renaud.