Sarah Aronson

Sarah Aronson is the author of And Other Bodiless Powers (New American Press 2019), selected by Andrew Grace for the New American Poetry Prize. Her poems have appeared in the Bellingham Review, Bennington Review, Colorado Review, Stringtown, and elsewhere. Her nonfiction is now available in the anthology We Leave the Flowers Where They Are: True stories of Montana Women. She lives in Missoula, MT where she hosts the Montana Public Radio program and podcast The Write Question.

Books

And Other Bodiless Powers

"This poet possesses a precision both spare and fierce. And Other Bodiless Powers is cut from the same cloth as the poems of Lorine Niedecker in that they both read a landscape, down to its smallest aspect, and create from these thickets, fogs and skiffs of snow a human language. When Sarah Aronson zeroes in, the world opens."

-Andrew Grace
Author of A Belonging Field, Sancta, and Shadeland

"Sarah Aronson's poems cultivate presence. As if sculpted by the elemental forces of wind, rain and time And Other Bodiless Powers gives form to feelings and ideas that can only emerge through deep attention to a world where 'what is torn/is also tender.' This thrilling debut renders a poetics akin to the warblers who 'hook their tiniest/songs to fog.'"

-Rob Schlegel
Author of The Lesser Fields, January Machine, and In the Tree Where the Double Sex Sleeps

"In this searching debut, Aronson carries out the essential 'sourcework' of looking deep into the intersection of landscape and self. What I admire is that such a confluence yields no certainty or dogma; instead, the poet gives us a vision rife with mystery and lyric invention. In the tradition of Gary Snyder and Lorine Niedecker, Aronson steps 'full weight/into a world,' and she does so using a language all her own. This is a collection to celebrate."

-Michael McGriff
Author of Home Burial, Black Postcards, and Early Hour



Bright Bones

Sarah Aronson is a featured author in Bright Bones, an anthology of innovative literature which is currently available at Open Country Press. Bright Bones includes fresh poems, stories, lyric essays and translations, as well as cross-genre, collaborative and experimental works. Emerging and established writers from Montana and/or those who have spent a significant amount of time in Montana are featured.
(Cover art: Kelly Packer)



We Leave the Flowers Where They Are

Sarah's nonfiction piece, "The Lookout," appears in We Leave The Flowers Where They Are. The anthology's website also features exclusive content from Sarah's landscape memoir which is a love letter to the urban glacier of her home. Sarah's other poems appear in the anthology, which is a truly diverse collection, with stories from women all around the Big Sky State, from Powder River to Eureka. Reflecting the lives of all Montana women, the authors’ stories offer joy, pain, humor and hope. From the story of how a midwife in Montana was sued and fought in court to ultimately earn the first professional license issued by the state, to the memoir of an incarcerated woman diagnosed with AIDS, the anthology represents the voices of writers with stories that demand to be told. These memoirs will help other women to not feel alone, ashamed, and to believe that change is possible.

A portion of the book’s proceeds will benefit two nonprofit organizations — Zootown Arts Community Center (ZACC), an arts nonprofit based in Missoula, and Humanities Montana, a nonprofit affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) with offices around the state.

Publications

"Chief Complaint" Academy of American Poets

"Amalgamate" Bellingham Review

"Seam of Light Through a Thicket of Nighttrees" Bennington Review

"Back 40: Siloed" Big Sky Journal

"Separate" The Boiler

"Potlatch 1988" Cirque

"Whiteout" Colorado Review

"If Not Thirst" High Desert Journal

"Upper Thompson River in Late Summer" Inlander

"Lunar Breaks" Pacifica Review


Also published in:

Portland Review

Yemassee Journal

Press

"Montana Books: Sarah Aronson is New, Fresh and Different" - Montana Press Monthly, November 10, 2019

"Montana Public Radio Host, Poet Wins Prize" - Missoulian, November 7, 2019

"Award-winning poet from Juneau follows her obsessions to her first poetry collection" - Juneau Empire, November 7, 2019


Spotlights & Interviews

The Write Question -- Interview - December 5, 2020

Montana Book Festival 2020 - September 3, 2020

Montana Book Festival 2019 - November 15, 2019

Bellingham Review Contributor Spotlight - January 9, 2019

Cutbank Interview - November 11, 2018

Radio

Sarah is the host and producer of The Write Question, a weekly literary program that features authors from the western United States, including James Lee Burke, Maile Meloy, Thomas McGuane, Kim Barnes, Robert Wrigley, Jess Walter, Pam Houston, Barry Lopez, and hundreds of others.


From what it means to be a “real Montanan,” to voter access, to public land, to rugged individualism, Shared State will bridge history, politics, and the daily reality of Montanans as we approach a landmark election.

Shared State is hosted by The Write Question’s Sarah Aronson and is collaboratively reported and produced by Montana Free Press, Montana Public Radio and Yellowstone Public Radio.

Awards

  • 2020 Montana Broadcasters Association E.B. Craney, Radio Program of the Year, Finalist
  • 2020 Montana Broadcasters Association E.B. Craney, Non-Commercial Radio Program of the Year, Finalist
  • 2019 Best New Poetry Nomination
  • 2019 Pushcart Nomination
  • 2018 New American Poetry Prize
  • 2018 Fishtrap Fellow
  • 2017 Beargrass Writing Retreat Fellow
  • 2017 Academy of American Poets College Prize
  • 2017 Greta Wrolstad Travel Award, University of Montana
  • 2016 Inlander Poetry Contest Finalist, Thom Caraway Judge
  • 2016 Husted-Jones Scholarship for Creative Writing, University of Montana
  • 1999 Award for Web Translation, Government of Finland

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