Biography

My first pamphlet, 'The Sky is cracked' is out in November 2017 with Half Moon Press. 4th-8th October 2017 Poetry Swindon Festival Richard Jeffries Museum Volunteer 21st October 2017 Sunderland Libraries Literature Festival Quiet Compere event Guest spots 24th November 2017 Pamphlet Launch 'The Sky is Cracked' The Chemic Tavern, Leeds 4th February 2018 Pub Poets - guest spot Blackpool 1st March 2018 Verse Matters - Sheffield 11th April 2018 Speaker's Corner - guest spot York 20th April 2018 Manky Poets - guest spot Chorlton Library 12th July 2018 Albert Poets - guest spot Huddersfield Library I occasionally host spoken word events at The Sair in Linthwaite. I have been a guest compere at Leeds Poetry by Heart (June 2013) WOL Sale (October 2014)and Manky Poets (November 2013). I compered a poetry event with the theme of Medicine at Cheltenham Poetry Festival in March 2014. Quiet Compere: I am toured my ten poet, ten minute format around the North in 2014 and nationally in 2015 (24 dates overall). The Quiet Compere Tours 2014 and 2015 were supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England. I have recently moved to Linthwaite, Huddersfield from Chorlton, Manchester. Guest slots: Manky Poets (July 2010), Write out Loud Sale (Jan 2013), Stirred (Feb 2013) Shangri La (May 2013), Spoken Weird (Aug 2013) Puzzle Poets (October 2014), Four Poets and a pasty at Vox Local, Chorlton (October 2014) Write Out Loud Sale (Jan 2015) Word Up, Birmingham (April 2015)

Samples

A bit like falling in love We navigate the safe edges until we join in conversation about ale and Magnus Mills. We share lost looks when the jukebox plays The Cure. Romance skirts our words and the band has changed, but not the era. We move closer, lost in our love for New Model Army, Neds and Ride. Due to be published in 'The sky is cracked', Half Moon Press, Nov 2017. also published by Half Moon Press in Anthology of pubs and on a beer-mat. Frank Exchange of Views You not Big Boy You not lady You not woman You Mummy My Batman My Big Boy My Darth Vader My beautiful My the boss You no the boss You Mummy Stand back My shut it! My want cuddle My the boy My the winner My doing a wee in the bath You put pretty on ears You look like lady You not lady You Mummy First published February 2013, YorkMix. "F" is for "finding anything that is not paper to draw on!" At first I was impressed when you could write the initial letter of your first name. I proudly watched your face concentrate the ink into a recognisable shape. Until I found the 3 lines in black felt-tip on the beige sofa throw, the angry chalk crumbs under the kitchen table, well before I find the "F" marked in a lazy moment mid-tantrum beneath one of the chairs. An "F" embossed on my degree certificate, frameless since you broke it in a squall about how the number 8 is not the number 9. In a flurry on the shopping list making my trip to Sainsbury's redundant as I return with treats and your food, but forget the toilet rolls, bleach and Vanish. Your marks will remain until the next trip. With permanent marker on your arm, branded on your new super-hero T-shirt in red paint. I would be unsurprised to see the letter "F" emblazoned in the sky, grown into the flower-bed you helped me plant or snail-trailed across our lounge carpet. Published in Ink, Sweat and Tears, August 2014. A Chalk Zoo I draw a pig, a bird, a cat. He sketches an aardvark, a dinosaur, a platypus. You clap, leap, dance on these at our instruction. When we obey your tasks you complain when we dance quietly, want our bodies to shout like yours. You have given it all and with dusk fall your retreat for a bath and tale about Mama Bear. I visualise the paving filled with purple giraffes, orange penguins and turquoise moles. I cancel plans, to sketch a zoo, on our suburban avenue. I sear Saharan camels on to this Chorlton pavement savannahs and jungles grow from my chalked movements. I bask green in rainforests and snorkel in the only Coral Reef in South Manchester. A murmuration of starlings, a wilderness of monkeys, a sounder of wild boar, a parliament of owls. All intricate in imagination ready to be realised When I shake the packet one small stub of white chalk bowls forth. I had grand plans. Instead I draw you a smile, a kiss, a daffodil you dismiss as messy, and a shrew holding a heart holding your name. You are delighted as if the road was filled with feathers and snouts, with talons, scales, dinosaur's jaws and the scent of evolution. First Published on Stare's Nest September 2014 Unconscious Infidelity The damp sheets leak dream secrets, pillows are pummelled by slumbering passion and the name you shouted as you woke wasn't his. First Published in Nutshells and Nuggets, October 2014.

All poems are copyright of the originating author. Permission must be obtained before using or performing others' poems.

Blog entries by Sarah L Dixon

Dates for 'The Sky is cracked' readings 2017/2018 (14/09/2017)

Quiet Compere Tour Dates 2015 (22/10/2014)

The Quiet Compere Tour 2014 Dates (23/12/2013)

Blog link: https://www.writeoutloud.net/blogs/sarahldixon