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.
"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
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)
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.
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.
Celebrate Montana Book Festival Kick-off Poetry Reading
Fact and Fiction Books 220 N Higgins Ave, Missoula, MT
with Geffrey Davis & Nishi Chawla
We Leave the Flowers Where They Are: Book Launch Party
Downtown Dance Collective 121 W Main St, Missoula, MT
Great Montana Read Celebrates Nonfiction
Downtown Dance Collective 121 W Main St, Missoula, MT
with Kim Anderson, Judy Blunt, Megan Stark, & Robert Stubblefied
Missoula Writers Who Work on Mainstreet
Montgomery Distillery 129 W Front St, Missoula, MT
with Jolene Brink, Chris La Tray, Jenny Montgomery, Karin Schalm, & Phil Schaefer
And Other Bodiless Powers Book Release Party
Ole Beck VFW Post 209, 245 W. Main St, Missoula, MT
with Kelly Schirmann & Sung Mountains
An Evening At Shakespeare & Company
Shakespeare and Co, 103 S 3rd St W, Missoula MT
An in-store reading and signing for We Leave The Flowers Where They Are, with Kelley Provost, Gladys Considine, Victoria Emmons, Sarah Aronson, and Elke Govertsen.
Ink & Whiskey: Prageeta Sharma & Sarah Aronson
Montgomery Distillery, 129 W Front St, Missoula, MT
With poet and former UM professor Prageeta Sharma and poet Sarah Aronson
Launch Party: Richard Fiffield's Book Release
Zootown Arts Community Center, 216 W Main St, Missoula, MT
With readings by Sarah Aronson and Mark Gibbons
C.M. Russell Museum - Mansfield Missouri Room, 400 13th Street, North Great Falls, MT
Details TBD
Ars Poëtica and Basalt: A Journal of Fine and Literary Arts Welcome Sarah Aronson