Sarah Karowskiis a 26-year-old writer and poet. She has a bachelor’s degree in Creative Writing from the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas, and she currently resides with her fiancé and dogs in Tallahassee, Florida. Her work has been featured on Mad Swirl, the Same, Sheepshead Review, Thimble Literary Magazine, and she was a runner-up in The Blue Nib chapbook contest. You can find her on most social media as @ladysarahwrites

What does it mean to you to be part of something like SMITTEN and have your work along side other women who love women?

This collection is something different entirely. Not pandering to, but in celebration of queer women. As a bisexual women in a committed relationship with a man, I feel especially honored to be apart of this. As if my identity is being validated. I feel even more apart of the lgbtq community than I ever have before, because my feelings and experiences are valid, even if I’m with a man now. I’ve loved women, I’ve loved them so much, the ache of them can still be felt in my bones, if I move the right way. Just because I’m with a man doesn’t erase that experience, and it means so much to be included among all of these talented women.

Did you ever want to be a voice for the lesbian/bi community? If so, why?

To be honest, I never thought I’d be. I’ve always loved this community, held on for dear life in some of the darkest moments of my life, but I never thought I’d be standing at the front for a time. I’ve always felt so strongly, and when I feel, I write. If those feelings can reach other young lgbtq women, and make them feel valid & less alone, then it’s an honor. I just never thought my feelings would be the ones chosen to do so.

Why is love a worthier subject than erotica to write on?

I’m a fan of intimacy. Sex is a form of intimacy, yes, and boy it’s sure fun, but it’s not the most intoxicating form for me. I live for the small moments, the camera lens zoomed & focused. How their hands rest on my hip, how their eyes glance & linger, the warmth of their smile when excitement bursts from them: these are all things much more intimate than sex. While sex is beautiful, and fun, and exciting, I think love makes us want to be alive. Love makes us pay attention to what makes life beautiful. And I think that’s much more interesting of a subject.

How does being a poet inform your views on expressing emotions through writing?

I’ve always felt things so deeply. Is that a cliche? My emotions are a physical sensation for me: bones breaking, veins throbbing, skin withering. Poetry is the best vehicle for which to explore and make sense of this. Metaphor is the best gift I’ve been given. I can tell people when I’m sad, it feels like my bones are roots weaving themselves into my mattress, trapping me in sheets. And they can awkwardly laugh, confused by an overexaggerated joke, but if I put that in a poem people can finally understand. Poetry becomes a way for me to actually be heard, and understood.

Whom are your favorite lesbian writers and why?

Can I be really cliche here? I’m going to expand that to bisexual writers as well and say Emily Dickinson. I’m a queer poet, of course I love Emily Dickinson. She changed the game for me. She threw out convention and wasn’t afraid to write how she felt. Love, beauty, wonder—she wrote in a way that made you really understand her. That’s what I want to do.

Contemporarily speaking, I’m quite a fan of Trista Mateer. Her poetry collection Honeybee is an ode to queer women, and women loving women. I read that poetry collection to inspire the poems I wrote for SMITTEN. So perfectly does it snapshot the confusion of your first love, especially when that first love is a women.

SMITTEN is coming out late October, 2019 via all good book stores. Published by Indie Blu(e) www.indieblu.net 

Please consider supporting this project of over 120+ talented poets and authors by purchasing a copy of SMITTEN for someone who appreciates beautiful poetry. https://www.facebook.com/SMITTENwomen/