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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahocwrites.bsky.social

400 followers 750 following 49 posts

Writer, Poet, Theatre goer, Music lover, Irishwoman abroad she/her http://linktr.ee/SarahOCwrites

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Sarah O'Connor @sarahocwrites.bsky.social · Jan 29

I'm thrilled to see my name on the pamphlet prize shortlist. Thank you @cripticarts.bsky.social @spread-the-word.bsky.social for seeing something in my work 🙏📚💙

Spread the Word @spread-the-word.bsky.social · Jan 28

Spread the Word and @cripticarts.bsky.social are delighted to share the long and shortlist for the 2025 #DisabledPoetsPrize.

✨The prize aims to nurture, encourage and celebrate the talents and successes of deaf & disabled poets✨

Read the announcement 👉 www.spreadtheword.org.uk/announcing-t...

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Reposted by Sarah O'Connor

Atrium @atriumpoetry.bsky.social · 7d

Sonnet for Perimenopause – Victoria Spires @victoriaspires.bsky.social

atriumpoetry.com/2025/10/03/s...

Sonnet for Perimenopause – Victoria Spires

Sonnet for Perimenopause . . Victoria Spires is published in Berlin Lit & The London Magazine. She has been commended/shortlisted in: Ledbury, TPW Prize, Aesthetica Arts, Artemesia Arts, Plough…

atriumpoetry.com

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Sarah O'Connor @sarahocwrites.bsky.social · 9d

A reminder of what can happen when politicians are led by policy not popularity 🙏🙌

Josiah Mortimer @josiah.writes.news · 9d

Link
www.london.gov.uk/london-meets...

London meets legal limits for toxic NO2 pollution for the first time – almost 200 years earlier than predicted – following the Mayor’s world leading air pollution policies

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, today hailed the success of his bold air quality policies which have led to the capital’s air pollution levels falling to within the legal limit for the first time.

www.london.gov.uk

Reposted by Sarah O'Connor

Jim Pickard @pickardje.bsky.social · 13d

this is an extraordinary canary in the coal mine

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 14d

Nathan Gill, Reform's leader in Wales at the last Welsh parliament election, has pled guilty to 8 bribery charges, taking Russian cash while he was one of Nigel Farage’s MEPs to speak in favour of Putin's Russia in that parliament
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Reform UK’s ex-leader in Wales Nathan Gill pleads guilty to bribery charges

Gill admits to eight counts of bribery relating to pro-Russia statements made in the European parliament and articles

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Sarah O'Connor

Mike Brooks @mikebrooks668.bsky.social · 14d

Go on, stick yer name on.

Vincent Knotley @vincentknotley.bsky.social · 14d

In the past hour or two signatures on this have nearly doubled.
It’s almost as if nobody wants a compulsory for all form of ID which will erode civil liberty and solve nothing.

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/73...

Petition: Do not introduce Digital ID cards

We demand that the UK Government immediately commits to not introducing a digital ID cards. There are reports that this is being looked at.

petition.parliament.uk

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Reposted by Sarah O'Connor

Naomi Alderman @naomialderman.bsky.social · 23d

I love London so much. So much.

Did you know that London has the lowest level of ethnic violence of any city of comparable size in the world?

Multiculturalism has in fact worked here. They just don’t want it to be true because we happen to have a Muslim mayor.

Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan @london.gov.uk · 23d

In London, hate will never win.

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Reposted by Sarah O'Connor

Irish PEN/PEN na hÉireann @irishpen.bsky.social · Sep 8

Please read this timely and excellent opinion piece by our @irishpen.bsky.social Board member @cauverymadhavan.bsky.social Cauvery Madhavan.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

When I left India, Ireland welcomed me in. I won’t let bigotry destroy the country we love | Cauvery Madhavan

People from the Indian community, and others, are facing violence that was once unthinkable. We must not give in to the racists, says novelist Cauvery Madhavan

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Sarah O'Connor

Nikita Gill @nikitagill.bsky.social · Sep 3

So utterly sick of politicians saying the most unfathomably cruel things because they want to be treated like a celebrity with controversial opinions and not a public servant, which is what they are elected to be.

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Sarah O'Connor @sarahocwrites.bsky.social · Aug 31

So my final stack for #TheSealeyChallenge I got to 23 rather than 31 but given the number of collections & a few languages scattered through I'm more than happy. Some excellent writers discovered & the realisation there are loads of pockets of time in my day for #MorePoems #SealeyChallenge #Booksky

A stack of poetry book spines sit against a grey background. From top down :
An Arbitrary Light Bulb Ian Duhig, Chaotic Good Isabelle Baafi, Aunty Uncle Poems Gboyega Odubanjo, Shoulder Tap Maurice Riordan, Cane Corn & Gully Safiya Kamaria Kinshasa, Stone Girl Mary Noonan, The Terrible Daniel Sluman, Panic Response John McCullough, The Butterfly House Kathryn Bevis, On Balance Sinéad Morrissey, Almost with Tenderness Maya Caspari, The Map of the World Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, When the flies come Fahad Al-Amoudi, The Coin Caleb Parkin, Selected Poems T.S.Eliot, Brother Poem Will Harris, The Spirit Level Seamus Heaney, And I Will make of you a vowel sound Morag Anderson, Mes forêts Hélène Dorion, fil/Uh Gemma Jackson, To read and dream Christina Rossetti, En l'absence du capitaine Cécile Coulon

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Sarah O'Connor @sarahocwrites.bsky.social · Aug 31

One last collection... book 23 for the #Sealeychallenge. Not 31 but definitely more than I would have thought possible in one month!

The cover of An Arbitrary Light Bulb by Ian Duhig

Sarah O'Connor @sarahocwrites.bsky.social · Aug 31

Book 22 of the #SealeyChallenge was a random selection that caught my eye in the library yesterday. Really excellent, absorbing poetry, I need to read more of her work! 💙📚

On Balance by Sinead Morrissey from Carcanet Press. The cover shows a range of prizes - Poetry Book Society choice, Costa shortlist & Winner of the 2017 Forward Prize

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Reposted by Sarah O'Connor

Vicki Ziegler @bookgaga.bsky.social · Aug 30

"Could the rain-carried pain be my banshee's caoineadh,
soothing my homesickness in its own morbid way?"

#TodaysPoem #poetry
I can't reach the greengage and my tomatoes are blight-ridden. by Sarah O’Connor (@sarahocwrites.bsky.social‬) (2024 @anthro-poetry.bsky.social) tinyurl.com/yc64ha8h

2 poems by Sarah O’Connor

After the funeralyou set the tablefor one place less. Not waitingto be asked, for once.You take down a bottle of regret,pop the cork, and pourus all a glass.Deep draughts keep us eachafloat, or some s...

tinyurl.com

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Sarah O'Connor @sarahocwrites.bsky.social · Aug 30

My favourite book of 2024 now available as audio 📚🎧🙌❤️

Ella Frears @ellafrears.bsky.social · Aug 30

GOODLORD the audiobook out now with Rough Trade Books 💫 get it here (or wherever you normally get your audiobooks) roughtradebooks.bandcamp.com/album/goodlo...

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Sarah O'Connor @sarahocwrites.bsky.social · Aug 29

Book 21 of the #SealeyChallenge & I'm very ready for some fiction next week! So thank god for this burst of kinetic poetic electricity. A wonderful book and it has left me eager to see her perform her work to better understand the live-ness of it

Cane Corn & Gully by Safiya Kamaria Kinshasa. The black cover has swirled sections of purple labanotation

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Reposted by Sarah O'Connor

Sylvia de Mars @sylviademars.me · Aug 28

The Quakers are doing exactly what all public services are legally allowed to do even if the EHRC wants to pretend they're not: say gender-based toilets are inclusive and for anyone bothered by that as a matter of belief, there are stand-alone cubicles that they are very free to use. 1/

Alexandra Lanes @ajlanes.bsky.social · Aug 28

This, from the Quakers, is a pretty good example of how to resist pressure from bigot lobbying groups. Effectively “we legally can allow trans people to use the loo, we morally should, and we tried it and nothing bad happened”

www.quaker.org.uk

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Sarah O'Connor @sarahocwrites.bsky.social · Aug 28

@lesfugitivespress.bsky.social + poetry 🤩 = Colour me excited 🤗

Les Fugitives @lesfugitivespress.bsky.social · Aug 27

Our first book of poetry comes out tomorrow. a grammar of the world by Jeanne Benameur translated by Bill Johnston. The perfect book for the end of summer and the end of Women in Translation month.

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Méabh de Brún @meabhdebrun.bsky.social · Aug 28

Advanced capitalism has exhausted us. We can only see the “labour” in “labour of love”. Instead of a lessening of burdens, we’re being offered a tool to remove that labour. But this labour is synonymous with the love. This work is the work of being alive. Don’t settle for outsourcing your life.

Imogen West-Knights @imogenwk.bsky.social · Aug 27

indulged in a little “old man yells at cloud” ranting in the guardian today www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

ChatGPT has its uses, but I still hate it – and I’ll tell you why | Imogen West-Knights

It’s bad for the planet and could make many jobs – including mine – obsolete. But my loathing runs deeper than that, says writer Imogen West-Knights

www.theguardian.com

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Sarah O'Connor @sarahocwrites.bsky.social · Aug 27

Book 20 for the #SealeyChallenge and I'm clearly getting quicker reading French! This collection didn't hold me as much as some of her earlier work unfortunately but I do love the physical size/shape of these poche editions 💙📚

The blue & red cover of En l'absence du capitaine by Cécile Coulon from Le Castor Astral

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Sarah O'Connor @sarahocwrites.bsky.social · Aug 27

Book 19 of the #SealeyChallenge is this snack-size pamphlet from Salo press. One of the more experimental works I've read and one I will need to digest & re-read next month

The cover of fil/Uh by Gemma Jackson has a black abstract line drawing on a white cover

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Sarah O'Connor @sarahocwrites.bsky.social · Aug 26

Another pamphlet for book 18 of the #SealeyChallenge and this one is a lovely exploration of the role of matriarchs in a family without getting overly sentimental

The cover of The Coin by Caleb Parkin from Broken Sleep Books

Reposted by Sarah O'Connor

Maria Farrell @mariafarrell.bsky.social · Aug 26

"People do not want the messy, uncomfortable truth that disabled people know—that we are all only one infection or accident away from disability. That disability is not a choice, but a natural variation of existence."

Every single word.

Why do editors keep getting taken in? Because they want to.

Polly Atkin @pollyrowena.bsky.social · Aug 26

I keep getting asked for my salty thoughts about the Salt Path as my position on nature cure narratives is v clear! A mere fraction of those thoughts published here @literaryhub.bsky.social, with thanks to @bookwormvaught.bsky.social and @nicwilson.bsky.social for their earlier pieces linked below.

Nature is Not Going to Cure You: On Raynor Winn’s Fabricated Memoir

Like many writers, I have been following the unfolding revelations about Raynor Winn and The Salt Path with great interest, and a degree of self-interest. I am a memoirist and nature writer, and I …

lithub.com

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The Green Party of England & Wales @greenparty.org.uk · Aug 26

Migrants didn't cut council funding. Migrants didn't cut NHS funding. Migrants didn't close youth centres. Migrants didn't sell off council houses. Migrants aren't filling our rivers with sewage.

Farage and co. will tell you to point the finger at migrants.

Don't fall for it.

MIGRANTS AREN'T THE PROBLEM
INEQUALITY IS
Green Party
Promoted by Chris Williams on behalf of The Green Party, both at PO Box 78066, London SE16 9GQ

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Sarah O'Connor @sarahocwrites.bsky.social · Aug 25

Book 17 of the #SealeyChallenge and this one though short is like a rich deep drink of language. Really original use of imagery that you must read slowly to absorb 💙📚

The 2024 Ayamati Pamphlet winner - And I will make of you a vowel sound by Morag Anderson. The cover is a deep inky blue with an image of a young woman in a short white dress sinking under water, head thrown back over her shoulder

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Sarah O'Connor @sarahocwrites.bsky.social · Aug 23

Book 16 of the #SealeyChallenge holds a power and a sadness within some incredibly well crafted poems. Glad this was one I read at home when I could sit with it & not out & about

The Butterfly House by Kathryn Bevis. A pale woman looks sadly towards the butterfly landing on her outstretched finger as her hair melts into a kaleidoscopic image of more butterflies, a house and human organs

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Sarah O'Connor @sarahocwrites.bsky.social · Aug 23

Book 15 of the #SealeyChallenge is this explosion of poetry. Sharp, energetic and unblinking this book dares you to look pain in the face and sit with it. Absolutely wonderful 💙📚

The bright blue & red book cover of The Terrible by Daniel Sluman from nine arches press.

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Sarah O'Connor @sarahocwrites.bsky.social · Aug 22

Book 14 of the #SealeyChallenge is actually a journal because this appeared in the post. Excited to read @carolinebracken.bsky.social prize winning pamphlet now from the sample in this

The cover of The North poetry journal issue 71. A bride and groom approach each other on tightrope

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