Sarah reading in Stayton, Oregon in summer, 2006.
In "Making Do: A Fable," one of the last poems written for Far Beyond Triage, Sarah Lantz imagines
a poet losing words. The prophetic nature of this poem is inexplicable. Soon after her husband
returned from Iraq, Sarah Lantz collapsed with a brain tumor. The surgery extracting the tumor
affected the area of her brain controlling language and left Sarah with aphasia. As her first poetry
book moved toward publication, Sarah could no longer rely on her remarkable language skills or
her memory during the editorial process. With great patience and defiant humor, Sarah still worked
on the manuscript with us. During a remission there was even hope for recovery. We expected
Sarah would see the final copy of the book, and she reassured us with her delight as she held the galley
this summer. Sarah has now left us Far Beyond Triage, and this incredible book stands as a memorial
to a great poet, writer, thinker, and enthusiast for life who left us much too soon.
Sarah Lantz, the author of Far Beyond Triage (CALYX Books, October 2007), was published by
CALYX Journal, The Denver Quarterly, The Marlboro Review , Margie, Paris Atlantic,
Manzanita Quarterly, and Sister Stew, among others. She was a secondary school teacher and
taught Poetry in the Schools in Oregon (through Literary Arts) and in Hawaii (through an NEA grant).
She received her MFA from Warren Wilson College and is a member of the Pearl Poets (Portland, OR).
She has been a featured poet on NPR’s Morning Edition, and on Canadian Broadcasting’s equivalent,
for her translations of Nushu, an ancient form of poetry created by women in Hunan, China, to record
their autobiographies.
Sarah Lantz’s family has asked that donations be made
in her memory to CALYX, PO Box B, Corvallis, OR 97339.
Or donate through PayPal:
Please click "Shipping not required" on Paypal's Shipping Information page.
If you have any stories or photographs of Sarah that you would like to share, please feel free to email
them to CALYX at calyx@proaxis.com. We would be happy to display them on this site.
Sarah at an intern luncheon with CALYX editors, 2004. |
