We recently connected with Sarah Steele and have shared our conversation below.

Sarah, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

I’ve always had a knack for the poetic. Which was disappointing to me because that didn’t feel very exciting or creative. (Do all creatives think someone else’s form of creativity is more interesting than theirs?) I wrote poems to commiserate with my fellow teachers about the difficulties of our teaching profession. I turned my poems into songs for my students to help them learn this new language of English. I poet-ed my way through the mundane tasks of early motherhood and offered poems to friends walking through great tragedies. I always wished I could draw them something meaningful, but alas, I was confined to my words.

And through it all, friends would regularly comment some form of, “You’re so creative!”

I couldn’t make myself believe it.

Then I walked through my own dark season, not sure who I would become on the other side, knowing only that I would never be the same.

My writing changed. It flowed from the sorrows and passions of my heart, instead of my intellectual brain. Friends noticed the change and encouraged me to continue. Something had become very, very real in my writing. I stopped writing for others and started writing for myself. Turns out, that’s the best way to connect with others—by sharing from the most vulnerable parts of yourself.

It finally clicked. Writing WAS my art. I tell about this revelation in the poem below (first published in Carolina Muse):

Wishes
by Sarah Steele

I wish I were a painter
whose brush could stroke the sky—
speak tangerine and blushing scene,
the silent ripples coming clean,
while calming breaths of in-between
blow wispy clouds on by.

I wish I were a carver
whose knife could sculpt a tree—
tell ancient tale of seed prevailed,
a growth more grand than any scale
and patterned husk that reads like braille
so all who saw believed.

I wish I were a builder
whose tools could craft a church—
mold sacred pictures into glass,
adorn the walls with gold or brass,
while worship rose from all who passed
as God their hearts would search.

But alas, I’m just a writer;
what art comes from a pen?
So I stroke a phrase and sculpt essays;
I craft and build with eyes ablaze,
when suddenly, I gape, amazed—
this is my art! Amen!

It took many years of quietly following that path—sharing a poem here and there, reading something of mine to people in my local community—before I was brave enough to step out of my little circle and offer my writing to a larger world. Getting paid for a poem, receiving generous affirmation from a writing community called The Way Back to Ourselves, selling my poetry artwork in local stores, and performing my poetry around Southwest Michigan have each taken my writing to another level professionally. And for that, I am thrilled.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

While I do enjoy painting with and teaching watercolor, my biggest passion pursuit will always be words.

I type my poetry on one of my typewriters and stitch a coordinating design onto the paper using embroidery floss. I also type my shorter poetry (on said typewriter) onto cards to be sent to another, primarily with those in mind who are currently suffering or who have walked with you through a season of suffering. These I sell at craft shows and local shops. I also teach others how to write their own version of these things through workshops; I am a trained teacher and will always be a teacher at heart.

But my favorite thing to do is perform my poetry. While I’ve published two children’s alphabet books (The Shoephabet and The Monsterbet), which are so silly and delightful, in March of 2024, I published my first book for grownups called An Ocean Without. It is a story about people-pleasing and boundaries and anxiety told exclusively through poems, and it is finding its home with so many of us raised to always say yes in service of others. It reached #1 Top New Release on Amazon for several months and continues to make waves (yes, I did that) with every performance I get to do of it. I wrote one song to complement each chapter, and sharing my art in this way has been as healing for my audience as it has been for me. I’ve gotten to perform different variations of my work at area schools, libraries, and churches, and even though An Ocean Without is almost a year old, it’s not done being shared!

How did you build your audience on social media?

I have actually been intentionally off social media since December 2023 (one year sober!), and my writing has flourished. Writing for the internet at large is incredibly dissatisfying work, with space limited to just a few loud voices. Social media algorithms reduce the percentage of your audience that will see your work to just 5-10%. Compare that with the 80% of my email subscribers who open my emails. (We think the other 20% ends up in spam—a problem I am working on!) The podcast called Writing Off Social opened my eyes to the hamster wheel world that is social media, and after a year of hemming and hawing, I finally took the plunge and haven’t looked back!

Your local community should be the first place your art is given. Libraries love to support local artists, so that’s a great place to start. How can your art benefit those around you? Not everything needs to be monetized, but not everything should be given away either. Starting small and growing into yourself takes a long time but is so much more fulfilling than trying to force the whole internet to hear you.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Sharing words that go beyond me, words that express a universal truth, is incredibly rewarding. Writing something that makes someone say, “Yes, that’s exactly how I feel,” is a beautiful part of writing. Or helping someone understand how it feels to experience a certain thing and bring them to a place of compassion for others. And also. While getting paid for my work is not *everything, it is pretty validating.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.bysarahsteele.com
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@BySarahSteele
• Other: https://www.etsy.com/shop/bysarahsteele

Image Credits

Carrie Miles Photography