You can purchase a signed copy of Devil’s Lake here!

Come by Overlook Hospital on Tuesday, April 2, 2025 from 1-3PM to receive a personalized healing poem from author Sarah M. Sala.

In February 2025, Therese Gleason, Shee Gomes, Cynthia Marie Hoffman,
Maria S.  Picone, and Sarah M. Sala presented their panel at the Louisville Conference on Literature & Culture.

ST. PAUL, MN, January 13, 2023— The Jerome Foundation is pleased to announce the 2023 grant recipients in the third round of the Jerome Hill Artist Fellowships program. Sarah M. Sala was a finalist for a 2023 Jerome Hill Fellowship. See the list of winners here.

Edward Hirsch in conversation with BLR poetry editor Sarah M. Sala about Hirsch’s acclaimed new book, The Heart of American Poetry. 7:00 p.m. Pre-event Cocktail Party: Join Edward Hirsch and the BLR Board & Editors for Cocktails and Conversation on the outdoor terrace of The Center for Fiction. 5:30 p.m.

All tickets include raffle ticket to win copies of The Heart of American Poetry. Buy tickets here.

Join us to celebrate the launch of 'Naming the Ghost' with poets Emily Hockaday and Sarah M. Sala!

About the poets:

Emily Hockaday's first full-length collection, Naming the Ghost is out with Cornerstone Press September 2022. Her second collection, In a Body, is forthcoming with Harbor Editions October 2023. She is the author of five chapbooks, and her poems have appeared in anthologies and various print and online journals. She can be found on the web at www.emilyhockaday.com and Twitter @E_Hockaday.

Sarah M. Sala is a queer poet of Polish-Lebanese descent. Her debut collection, Devil’s Lake (Tolsun 2020) was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award, a Publishing Triangle Award, and an Eric Hoffer Provocateur Award. She is the founder of the free poetry workshop, Office Hours, and Poetry Editor at the Bellevue Literary Review. She is a clinical associate professor in the expository writing program at New York University. Her work appears in BOMB, the Southampton Review, and the Los Angeles Review. www.sarahmsala.com

Attention poets going to AWP! On Wednesday March 23rd, 2022 from 7-9 PM, check out the Wednesday Night Poetry off-site reading WNP at The Fire, AWP22 Offsite Reading! It's going to be an amazing line up:
Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach, Melissa Studdard, Heidi Seaborn, Sonia Greenfield, Courtney LeBlanc, Meghan Sterling, Kelly Grace Thomas Vojdani, JP Howard, Caridad Moro-Gronlier, Jen Karetnick, Julie E. Bloemeke, Jessica Cuello, Sarah Browning, Elijah B Pringle III, Stephanie Niu, Taylor Mali, Chloe Martinez, Nicole Hefner Callihan, Iris Dunkle, Zoe Ryder White, Sarah M. Sala, Georgina Marie Guardado, Amy Small-McKinney, and many more poets all sharing a single poem. It's going to be a mosaic of warmth and beauty, community and cocktails!

If you are looking for a warm welcome that first night in Philly, come to The Fire and hear poems from all of these incredible WNP virtual lights meeting in person for the first time! All are welcome. $10 cover.

March 23rd 7-9pm 412 W. Girard Ave Philadelphia.

Join us March 24 – 8:30 pm – 9:30 pm EDT for a Zoom reading by some of our jackalopes (a.k.a. Tolsun Books authors): Jordan E. Franklin, Hunter Hazelton, and Sarah M. Sala. Email heather@tolsunbooks.com to receive the Zoom link.

Join us for an AWP offsite reading on Saturday, March 25th, 2022 @7:30 PM-9PM at the Pen and Pencil Club in Philly.

Featuring Tolsun Authors:

Michael Buckius, Flower Conroy, Caitlyn Hunter, Chad Meadows, Shawnte Orion, Sarah M. Sala, Margaret Upton, Jesse Sensibar.

A virtual event featuring: Angelique N. Zobitz, Remica L. Bingham-Risher, Sarah M. Sala, Christina Springer Vivian Gibson, Robin Davis McCormick, and Regina Yvette Carter Garcia

Lee Maxey
Be Not Afraid
October 30-December 4, 2021
Opening reception: Thursday, November 4, 5-8pm

Olympia is pleased to present Be Not Afraid, a solo exhibition of recent egg tempera paintings by Lee Maxey. Though situated in a familiar domestic space, the images fixate on ordinary objects and scenes and transform them into queer emblems of a controlling, mystical world. Lee’s paintings revel in a world of spiritual otherness that borders on paranoia. Blatant symbols—an alarm, a rainbow, a crucifix— investigate the meaning of perception and storytelling. A gleaming blue gas stovetop becomes a portal; in the small space of a bathroom tile, the granite texture flickers between a landscape and a mushroom cloud. Maxey’s approach to creating the kind of space that allows for multiple interpretations is in part a response to the religious Christian upbringing she chose to leave behind, where for centuries art relied on fixed symbols in order to aid in the study of scripture and to facilitate worship. Egg tempera further connects the work to a tradition of spiritual storytelling. The slow and deliberate technique the medium requires extends to the looking experience of the paintings themselves.

Be Not Afraid is accompanied by a book with an essay by Chantal Soong Lee and poetry by Sarah M. Sala.

Olympia will host a poetry reading in conjunction with the show on November 6th. Participants include Stephon Lawrence, Zefyr Lisowski, Sahar Romani, Sarah M. Sala, Janelle Tan, and Robert Whitehead.

Sunday, November 7th, 2021 at 3:00 PM in Della's backyard, Naomi Extra, Arden Levine, Abba Belgrave, and Sarah M. Sala will be reading poems and selling books. Come, grab a drink, and celebrate poetry and community with us. Della Reading and Book Release Part Deux!

The Union of Concerned Scientists invites you to a virtual conversation among five contemporary poets whose work explores science and our relationship to the earth. Join these poets to discuss the ways they use their art form to inspire and move people to action.

The Poetry of Science
Date: Wednesday, October 27
Time: 7:00–8:15 p.m. ET / 4:00–5:15 p.m. PT

Register for the virtual event today.

Speakers:
• Elizabeth J. Coleman (moderator, editor of HERE: Poems for the Planet)
• Kimiko Hahn
• Jane Hirshfield
• Jenny Qi
• Sarah M. Sala

NYC writers and musicians share their work and resources that helped them maintain their creative practices during the pandemic.

Participants include Anna Limontas-Salisbury, C. Quintana, Duhirwe Rushemeza, Irene Villasenor, JusticeLaBrave, Margaret Yellow Wolf Tarrant, Molly B. Gross, Rosa Bordallo, and Sarah M. Sala.

Check out these uber-talented performers taking our stage 10/12 at Caveat NYC.

Team 20s: Bianca Mendez is a writer and editor working mostly in the women's lifestyle space.

Team 30s: Sarah M. Sala is a poet, educator, native Michigander, and the author of Devil’s Lake.

Team 40s: Danielle Moodie is an advisor for LGBT Policy & Racial Justice at the Center for American Progress.

Team 50s: Peternelle van Arsdale is the author of two young adult novels, The Beast Is an Animal and The Cold Is in Her Bones.

Team 60s: Lizz Winstead is the co-creator and former head writer of The Daily Show, and co-founder of Air America Radio.

Team 70s: Laura Simms is the Artistic Director of the Hans Christian Andersen Storytelling Center in NY and the founder of The Center for Engaged Storytelling.

Devil’s Lake was named a Distinguished Favorite for the Independent Press Awards, finalist for a Lambda Literary Award in Lesbian Poetry, a finalist for the Publishing Triangle Audre Lorde Poetry Award, a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Medal Provocateur Award, Longlisted for the International Poetry Book Awards, and a 2021 PSV North American Poetry Book Award Semifinalist.

Join us for a virtual panel discussion June 2nd, 2021 from 6:00 PM-8:30 PM EST on the intersections of poetry and science!

Sarah M. Sala (Expository Writing, NYU) is joined by Jenny Qi (Poet and Biologist), Joalda Morancy (Geophysical Sciences and Astronomy & Astrophysics student, University of Chicago) and Karel Green (Co-Founder of POC Squared, and Astrophysics doctoral student, University of Nottingham). Panel moderated by Neutrino Physics PhD student, Pruthvi Mehta.

Click to listen to her poem, “Blue Dog” and read about the best borough in NYC!

Announcing the Office Hours Broadside Fundraiser Exhibition this Saturday January 9th, 2021 @ 3:30 PM EST via BGSQD.

We've paired up eight LGBTQ+ poets with stunning visual artists to craft unique broadsides showcasing their remarkable poems. All broadside sales go toward funding current and future Office Hours Poetry Workshop Fellows. The event will include both a poetry reading and a Q & A with the visual artists moderated by Founding Director, Sarah M. Sala.

Featured Poets Include: CA Conrad, Marty Correia, Alexis Aceves, Benjamin Garcia, Omotara James, Ricardo Maldonado, CQ Quintana, and Crystal Valentine.

Featured Visual Artists: Reba Joy, Esteban Delgado, Sy Klipsch-Abudu, Brandon Menke, Meesh Nah, Umang Antariksh Sagar, and Sherie L. Weldon.

WNP Virtual Open Mic, Poetry Through the Pandemic is launching Volume 43 this Wednesday January 6th, 2021 at 8:00 PM EST. The event features these amazing, powerful, and necessary voices dedicated to telling the human story— Longlisted for the National Book Award, award-winning poet, author, and professor Chen Chen. Poet, author, and professor at NYU, Sarah M. Sala Award-winning queer poet, author, and photographer Guillermo Filice Castro. Poet, blogger, fierce advocate for the literary arts, and wellspring of publication help for poets Trish Hopkinson.

Six authors from four time zones share their writing, and talk about how queerness operates in their work and how this has changed over time.

Join Kiran Bhat, Tom Cho, Farzana Doctor, Jee Leong Koh, Angela Meyer, and Sarah M. Sala for a group reading and a conversation moderated by William Johnson, Deputy Director of Lambda Literary.
 

Join us Friday December 11th, 2020 at 7PM EST for the (Virtual) Office Hours Showcase Reading featuring: Madeline Mori, Mary Block, Carrie Hohmann Campbell, Laura Cresté, Emily Hockaday, Marty Correia, Paco Márquez, Linda Harris Dolan, and Sarah M. Sala.

Join us Sunday October 25th, 2020 via Tolsun Books’s Facebook Live to raise money for the press. Sarah M. Sala reads at 4:50 PM EDT.

Join us for a virtual celebration of all the poets who participated in the Devil’s Lake Exhibition and book launch! Click here to RSVP.

Click to hear Yves Nuno and Sarah M. Sala discuss queerness in nature, the nuances of inanimacy, and the queer community’s resilience.

Tune in to hear Sarah M. Sala read from her debut poetry collection, Devil’s Lake. Followed by a Q & A with BOMB Magazine’s own Raluca Albu!

Poetry is Made of Atoms: A Conversation with Sarah M. Sala Interviewed by CAConrad. Click the link to read the full interview.

Join us Wednesday August 12th, 8PM EST for a live reading to celebrate the launch of Devil’s Lake. Instagram Live via @tolsunbooks.

I'm excited to announce this dream book launch featuring Moncho Alvarado, CA Conrad, Anne Carson, Omotara James, and Ricardo Maldonado. Come gather virtually via Literati Bookstore on August 11th, 2020 at 7:00 PM EST. This event is a compilation of so many parts of myself and so many people I love and admire. Tune in and celebrate these tremendous readers!

In collaboration with Leeanne Maxey and Ralph Emrick, I'm thrilled to announce the forthcoming ~exhibition~ "DEVIL'S LAKE": a virtual gallery in collaboration with the release my debut poetry collection August 10th, 2020 from Tolsun Books!

The exhibition will feature visual art accompanied by poems, as well as poetry broadsides designed for the occasion. Each artist has chosen a BIPOC charity to donate a portion of their sales.

Here's a list of participating creatives!

VISUAL ARTISTS
Manal Abu Shaheen
Yasi Alipour
Ria Brodell
Gaby Collins-Fernandez
Cassidy Early
Jose Joaquin Figueroa
Jesse Harrod
Clarity Haynes
Meesh Nah
Leeanne Maxey
Manuel Padernos
Aldrín Valdez
Irene Villaseñor

POETS
CA Conrad
Ricardo Maldonado
Sahar Romani
Sarah Jones
Julia Elizabeth Guez
Nicole Wallace
Bernard Ferguson

BROADSIDE ARTISTS
Brandon Menke
Aldrín Valdez
Maximilián Vega-Vélez
Anne Muntges
Pedro Fequiere

Link: devils-lake.com

Presales for DEVIL’S LAKE are live! Gain exclusive access to the book with a preorder and you’ll receive your copy before August 11th, 2020. Follow the link here: https://tolsunbooks.com/shop/devils-lake

Join us for the Spring 2020 Office Hours Poetry Workshop Showcase Reading. Featured readers include: Emily Hockaday, Linda Harris-Dolan, Sharon Her, Paco Marquez, Maddie Mori, Sophie Herron, Vanessa Rodrigues Moody, Holly Mitchell Laura Cresté, Jennifer Levitt, and Sarah M. Sala!

Join Sundress as they broadcast their first virtual event on Wednesday, May 27th from 7-8PM EST! This reading will feature Angela Narcisco Torres, Joshua Nguyen, and Sarah M. Sala!

Join us Sunday at 4pm EST to hear Sarah M. Sala read from her forthcoming poetry collection, Devil's Lake. Contact @tolsunbooks for an invite.

Listen Here, Jackalope: A Tolsun Books Reading with Sarah Abigail Adleman, Angela M. Brommel, Michael Buckius, Sarah M. Sala.

Date(s): Saturday, February 22, 2020, 4:15 p.m. to 5:15 p.m.
Location: Front Lawn, Old Main, Arizona State University Tempe, 400 E Tyler Mall, Tempe, AZ 85281

JOIN US TO CELEBRATE THE SOFT RELEASE OF ELIZABETH DEVLIN’S NEW EP, CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR!

Readings & Music by:

Michael Fetterman

Dolan Morgan

James Yeh

Sarah Sala

Paolo Javier

Little Cobweb

Elizabeth Devlin

THE LORENE POUNCEY MEMORIAL AWARD
All women selected as Juried Poets are considered for the $250 cash prize established by Sandi Glorfield in honor of the late Lorene Pouncey, one of the founders of Houston Poetry Fest, who passed away December 4, 2011. Sarah Sala was chosen as the top juried poet for 2019 and received the Lorene Pouncey Award. She will return in October 2020 as a featured reader.

Every October since 1985, poets from the Houston area and beyond gather for a weekend to celebrate the art of poetry and those who create it. Houston Poetry Fest is held at the University of Houston - Downtown, One Main Street, overlooking the downtown skyline. Check us out Saturday October 12th, 7:30 PM. Featured readers for the evening include:

Gayle Bell

Lisa Morano

PW Covington

Janet McCann

Sarah Sala

This reading is part of a larger collaboration with PEN America, the Poetry Project, and the Reading Series of NY called Break Out: A Movement to (re)Integrate Incarcerated Writers Into Literary Community. Join me as I read with the Big Words etc, crew!

This Friday, September 6th, 2019 join Brian Zimbler, Brittany Shutts, and Sarah Sala at feminist community bookstore and cafe Cafe Con Libros for the next Renegade Reading Series! Doors open at 7pm and readings begin at 7:30PM.

Join us in celebrating the 50-year anniversary of Stonewall! Featuring work from: Adam Fitzgerald, Aimee Herman, Christina Quintana, Jason Schneiderman, Jason Zuzga, Jeffery Berg, JP Howard, Lonely Christopher, Lynn McGee, Michael Klein, Michael Montlack, Sarah Sala, Sarah Sarai, Stephen Motika, Steven Cordova, William Leo Coakley & more!

Join us for a queer poetry PRIDE celebration featuring: Adam Fitzgerald, Christina Quintana, Don Yorty, Grey Vild, Jason Schneiderman, Jeffery Berg, Lønely Christopher, Michael Montlack, Roger Ian Rosen, Sarah Sala, Stephen Mills, Thomas Dooley, and William Leo Coakley.

REBEL REBEL is a live performance of poetry written by some of New York's hottest poets and performed on stage by a cast of film and stage actors. Celebrate Pride with a night of electrifying poems that bring to life revolutionary lives and radical love. Directed by Thomas Dooley.

Featuring poems by Austin Greer, Juan Luis Guzman, Aimee Herman, Marjorie Lipari, Cynthia Manick, Francisco Marquez, Max McDonough, Ansley Moon, Sarah Sala, Jason Schneiderman, Christina Quintana, and Monica Wendel.

Performed by a cast of stage and film actors.

Congratulations to the 2019 Poets House Emerging Poets Fellows!

Rabih Ahmed, Kiran Bath, Catherine Chen, Charlene Francois, Trevor Ketner, Shalewa Mackall, James Fujinami Moore, Val Rigodon, Sarah M. Sala, and Nicole Wallace

Come hear LA Warman, Maya Martinez, and Sarah Sala read at Codex Thursday February 21st, 2019 at 7:00 PM!

HEARTBREAKER / VERSE MAKER is a live performance of poetry written by some of New York's hottest poets and performed on stage by a cast of film and stage actors. This Valentine's Day, snuggle up with some fiery poems about modern love that will surely get your heart going.

Doors: 6:30pm / Show: 7:00pm
Tickets: $15

Poems written by:
Keisha-Gaye Anderson
Ryan Black
Matthew Brailas
Emily Brandt
Nicole Callihan
Allison Escoto
Jared Harel
Aimee Herman
Emily Hockaday
Abeer Hoque
Safia Jama
Arden Levine
Anna Limontas-Salisbury
Katie Longofono
Thomas March
Lynn Melnick
Sanjana Nair
Christina Quintana
Matthew Rohrer
Sarah Sala
Jason Schneiderman
KC Trommer
Irene Villaseñor
Rachel Zucker

Check out Sarah Sala’s interview with author Aldrin Valdez on the launch of their first collection, ESL or You Weren’t Here (Nightboat 2018).

Come out to hear these amazing poets help launch Aldrin Valdez’s debut poetry collection, “ESL Or You Weren’t Here” at Spoonbill Warehouse in Brooklyn.

Celebrate national coming out day in style by hearing Candace Williams, Irene Villaseñor, Sarah Sala, and Bakar Wilson share their work!

Check out episode 31 of Vijay R. Nathan’s Truth to Power Podcast to hear Sarah Sala read from her first collection, Devil’s Lake. As well as discuss gun violence, the Midwest, the absurdities of teaching, empathy fatigue, and more!

Check out Sarah M. Sala’s interview with Laura Esther Wolfson up at Michigan Quarterly Review!

Check out the recent blog post about Office Hours Poetry Workshop over at Poets & Writers!

Come celebrate Franklin Electric Reading Series' two-year anniversary with a  reunion featuring rapid-fire readings by some of our wonderful writers from the past years: Gbenga Adesina, Diannely Antigua, Justin Boening, James Ciano, Laura Cresté, Linda Harris Dolan, Kate Doyle, Jennifer Franklin, Paul Legault, Nathan McClain, Caroline Rayner, Sarah Sala, Andy Sanchez, Maud Streep, Kem Joy Ukwu, and Devon Walker-Figueroa. 
 

Come celebrate one year gone by with performances by musicians, comedians, poets and storytellers. Bessie's is opening up the floor for our friends and family to contribute/read/sing/art talk; ALL ACOUSTIC ALL NIGHT until the ball drops.
 

Sarah Sala's debut poetry collection, Devil's Lake, was named a finalist for the 2017 contest. Congrats to the other semi-finalists and finalists! 

Check out a night of poetry at the Queens Library!

Through the generosity of Sundress Academy for the Arts, this January 2018 Sarah will live as writer-in-residence at Fire Fly Farms, continuing work on her full-poetry manuscript, Devil's Lake. She's particularly excited to spend time working on the long-form piece, "Something Green."

Come out to Governors Island on July 29th at 2:00 PM to hear featured writers: Trae Durica, Sarah Sala, and Aldrin Valdez read for Queer Arts Organics!

Writers from the first annual Office Hours Poetry Workshop give a spring reading to showcase new poetry developed over the course of six workshop sessions. The workshop welcomes all poets, especially people of color, LGBTQ+, and those who are female-identified. Our name derives from our side hustle. Many of us are freelance, adjunct instructors, who continue to thrive in the margins of academia. Come check out our cohort and see if you'd like to join! 

Featuring Michael H. Broder, Paco Márquez, Sarah Sala, Liv Lansdale, and Caitlin Grace McDonnell.
 

Join us for a a live poetry event featuring the actors: LaChrisha Brown, Ramsey Faragallah, and Ashley Marie Ortiz.

Featuring the poets: Thomas March, Jason Schneiderman, Sarah Sala, Christina Quintana, Sanjana Nair, Linda Harris Dolan, Emily Hockaday, Richard Prins, Emily Blair, Ryan Dzelzkalns, Anna McDonald, Paco Marquez, Cynthia Manick, Marina Blitshteyn, and Emily Brandt

Come out to Bloomsbury Square to enjoy performances from Sarah Sala, Melida Rodas, and Tiphanie. All proceeds benefit the Pershing Fields Gardens. 

Literati is pleased to welcome poets Raymond McDaniel, Christina Quintana, Sarah Sala, and Keith Taylor for the latest installment of our Poetry at Literati reading series. Join us in launching their chapbooks into the world. 

Come hear a reading from The Ghost Assembly Line Friday September 9th at 7Pm in Reeder Hall, Lower Level Lecture Hall.  

Sarah Sala has been chosen as a visiting artist for the Bergen County Academies Summer Writing Program. This August 3rd & 4th she will guest teach poetry workshops to select high school students from all over NJ.  

A powerful night of LGBTQ poetry and performance that celebrates our love, our bodies, and our lives.

Poems by Sarah Sala. Art by Annie Seaton. Check out this surf collaboration here: http://7x7.la/indigo/

The Literature, Arts, & Environment Colloquium invites you to the launch for Palimpsest VII: HYBRID. The festivities will take place on Wednesday, April 20 from 7:00 to 9:00pm in WLH 309. Free copies of the magazine will be available, and refreshments will be served. In addition to interdisciplinary performances, projections by Yale MFA artists, and other such interventions, there will also be flash poetry readings by issue contributors Thomas Dooley, Peter Longofono, Sarah Sala and Margaret Schultz. 

The Oleander Review Release Party and Reading @ Literati Bookstore, 7:00 PM. See a review of the event HERE! 

Excited to announce a new chapbook, The Ghost Assembly Line, is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press in March 2016! Pre-order is now available here. 

Sarah is headed to the Home School-Miami this January! Visit her GoFundMe page here.

"Hydrogen" was recently featured on NPR's hit show Radio Lab in collaboration with Emotive Fruition, 2015. Click to listen. 

Submit your work to the Lamprophonic Emerging Writers Series! Sarah is the new poetry curator and would love to read your poems.