Sarah Leamy is a British novelist living in the USA and Mexico whose writing is known for its unique blend of nontraditional protagonists, Southwestern landscapes, and stories that challenge the status quo. She hosts the Wanderlust Journal, a podcast full of travel stories, events, gear and people, available wherever you listen to podcasts. Sarah also presents at travel expos on such topics as being a solo explorer, taking pets along, the Southwest Backroads, and the business of writing and publishing.
Sarah Leamy is the author of Stay, G’Dog, Hidden, When No One’s Looking, Lucky Shot, and Lucky Find, as well as her award winning travelogue, Van Life. Her shorter work has been published in Los Angeles Review, Hunger Mountain, Santa Fe Writers Project, and others. Find out more here. On this website you’ll find pages dedicated to her writing, the books published, the travel writing podcast and others. Go to the menu and click on Writing to find her recent posts.
Leamy’s characters navigate complex themes of gender, sexuality, class, power, poverty, drugs, and mental health in unexpected ways. With vivid descriptions of the American Southwest, its landscapes, animals, and lifestyle, Leamy’s distinctive voice brings you into the visceral experience of those struggling to find a sense of connection. Her work is known for its strong independent women who challenge social norms, unpredictable plots, and richly drawn characters.
PUBLISHED in 2023:
STAY, a hybrid memoir full of stories, sketches, and more…
A sample of current reviews includes:
“Stay is a testament to our shared humanity. On the surface, my lifestyle, sexuality, upbringing, and way of being in the world seem to share little with the author of this memoir. But in between the white pages, sketches, vivid scenes and family photos of Stay, I found new ways to view my own childhood, to forgive my own parents, new strength to forge my own path forward. Sarah’s words sear the page. Bouncing back and forth in time and place between the UK and the American Southwest, between her childhood and the gour decades following, she is honest without self-pity, reflective without psychobabble. I was sorry when it was over.”
Tej Rae, author of Sirens
“With Stay, Sarah Leamy–nomad, fearless explorer, and experimental artist on the page–weaves together photos, drawings, and prose which often reads like poetry, leap-frogging through the different stages of her life; losing, searching, and rediscovering what it means to be home. Her writing is alternately poignant and playful (she was a clown for a time!). These prose fragments follow a narrative line of her own surprising, innovative design. The snapshots of family life and life on the road call to mind Grace Paley with their spare language and simple scaffolding and the singular voice and the way they refrain from elaborate plot elements but never wander far from the heart. The book provides a home for any wanderer who ever felt like they didn’t belong.”
“Sarah Leamy’s book is both the easiest book and the hardest book that I’ve read in a very long time. Her ability to bring me into the brief stories of her journeys kept me moving ahead. Easy. Global citizen. Intriguing. And then the persistent smack of emotion that broke my heart and wished so much more and different for her. Hard. And then to understand her determination, her resilience, her search for companions that could live with her and love her. Rosie, Harold, Stevie–the best sort of companions. “Stevie sulked. Harold nestled on the bed beside you. Your other dog wagged her tail, knocked over the phone, and you smiled, finally, saying, ah, Rosie, thank you, you’re right, I don’t need to hear from anyone now.” But we have heard from you, dear Sarah! Thank you for letting us become companions on your journey!”
You can find video readings from STAY on TikTok here:
Also, The Best Small Fictions Anthology 2022 came out in March 2023:
Her Other Most Recent Publications Include:
G’dog
Flash fiction from Finishing Line Press
RELEASE DATE Mar. 25, 2022
G’Dog is a collection of vignettes set in the animal world and inspired by a few anonymous Russian fables of the early 20th century.
“Gritty and heartening, these fables give us a magical look at critters, creativity and life itself.”
Denise Ryan (award-winning journalist and essayist)
“Unconditional love for animals, art, words, and weirdness.”
Kayleigh Marinelli (The Fantastic Fabricated Life of Lyle Parker)
“Here is a mad romp into the lives of animals; a work of expansive, fundamental empathy.”
Miriam McEwen (Editor at South Carolina Review)
“Genuine animal-sprinkled stories that will suck you in.”
Gina Tron (Employment)
FINISHING LINE PRESS
Post Office Box 1626
Georgetown, KY 40324 www.finishinglinepress.com
Hidden
Finishing Line Press, 2021
$14.99
“Memory lives on the cusp between life and dream, seeing and saying, falling to pieces and finding form. Sleam’s Hidden is a brilliant constellation of fragments, flashes, and waves that collect emotion, memory, desire, love, animals, land, and identities. This work is nothing short of breathtaking to me. Defiant in form, tender of heart, I took it into my body without hesitation. A heart triumph.”
–Lidia Yuknavitch, (Verge, Misfit Manifesto, Chronology of Water)
“Humorous, sensual, and vulnerable. Sleam’s narrative poems whisper the intricacies of relationship, appealing to the voyeur in all of us.”
–Jasminum McMullen, (By the Hour)
“Tess Gallagher once said that ‘The best love poems confirm something we secretly felt but never said’. I think this is true about Sarah Leamy‘s Hidden though the poems in this collection go even further: not just confirming something we never said but giving that secret thing a language that can hold it. In this beautifully narrative collection we are blessed by a poet whose central power is love. What a gift. Especially in a world that seems less and less interested in something so radically powerful. Hidden should not be hidden at all. It should be shared with everyone.”
–Matthew Dickman (Wonderland, 2018)
Sarah Leamy 