Sarah Westcott

Poet and journalist Sarah Westcott was raised in North Devon, England. She is the author of the poetry collections Bloom (Liverpool University Press, 2021), which was longlisted for the Laurel Prize for Ecopoetry, and Slant Light (Liverpool University Press, 2016). Her pamphlet Inklings (Flipped Eye, 2013) won the Poetry Book Society’s Pamphlet Choice for winter 2013 and was the runner-up for the inaugural Venture Poetry Award. 

Westcott’s poetry has been published in Poetry Review, Butcher’s Dog, POEM, and Magma. Her work has been included in anthologies including The Forward Book of Poetry 2017 (Faber & Faber, 2016), The Poet’s Quest for God (Eyewear Publishing, 2016), and The Best British Poetry 2014 (Salt Publishing, 2014).

Westcott won the 2018 Poets & Players Competition, the 2017 The London Magazine Poetry Prize, and the 2016 Manchester Cathedral Poetry Competition. She was awarded a residency at the Bethnal Green Nature Reserve in 2015. She has been a journalist for more than 20 years, and her reporting has appeared in publications including the Daily Mirror, the Guardian, the Independent, the Evening Standard, and the Creative Independent. 

Westcott earned an MA in creative writing from Royal Holloway, University of London, and a post-graduate certificate in teaching creative writing from the University of Cambridge. She has facilitated writing workshops for Poets for the Planet, the Second Light Network for women poets, and the Poetry School. Westcott lives with her family near London, England.