Sara Nesbitt Gibbons | Poet, Writer and Workshop Tutor

I am a writer and workshop facilitator born and still living in London

My debut poetry collection, And They Are Clapping, was published by Indigo Dreams
on 17 October 2025:

https://indigodreamspublishing.com/sara-nesbitt-gibbons

Cover Art by Neal Vaughan

Art work copyright Neal Vaughan for cover of poetry collection called 'And They Are Clapping' by poet Sara Nesbitt Gibbons

Contact

Email: sara@saranesbitt.co.uk (I’m afraid I don’t do social media)

Poetry

‘All Season Sestina’ was written and recorded for Neal Vaughan’s film about the Wandle, The River

‘Kensington Central Library (Red)’ was commended in the Troubadour Coffee House Poetry Prize

‘Looking at Her Missing Brother’s Paintings: East Finchley Cemetery’ was highly commended in the Frosted Fire poetry prize

‘Outdoors is a Construction’ in Wildfire Words: Renaming

‘First Sight of Real Seals’ and ‘To Interaction’ in Porridge

‘Dover Beach Youth Hostel’ and ‘Negligee’ in The Wardrobe

‘Lessons Learned from Sock Lobster Squid Thing’ in Streetcake

My poems have also appeared in various print journals, including Magma, South Bank Poetry, Brittle Star and Obsessed with Pipework.

They have been anthologised in The Emma Press Anthology of Slow Things and The Emma Press Anthology of the Sea, and Bedford Square.

I was also commended in the Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine, PenFRO Green Poems, and Ware Poetry Competition. I was moved that my poem, ‘Afterlife’, was read to honour a Royal Society of Medicine member at their annual ceremony.

I’ve longlisted twice for the National Poetry Competition.

I have an MA with Distinction in Creative Writing, taught by Andrew Motion and Jo Shapcott.

My poem on St Bridget’s Day was one of the winners of the National Poetry Library’s instapoetry competition, 2018, and was part of an exhibition at Southbank Centre.

Performance

I host open mic and poetry events ad hoc, in London.

I am currently performing live music and poems with collaborators, including at Carshalton Festival and Sutton EcoLocal Fair.

I have worked on various community and professional theatre projects, as director, assistant director and writer. With Occurrent Glow, I directed ‘Incisions and Excavations: The Poem Reincarnating Theatre’, at The Old Operating Theatre Museum, and made a poetry film called ‘Cut Short’. I worked with community theatre group The Angel Players on a version of my sequence, ‘Grace’. Venues included St Pancras International and Islington Museum.

I also performed ‘Grace’ solo, usually with help from hula hoop and puppets.

Workshops

I am a freelance workshop facilitator, with many years’ experience leading workshops and projects in multimodal storytelling, creative writing, poetry and theatre. I am based in London.

I have an MA in World Englishes, specialising in multimodal storytelling and stories in interaction.

Editing

I guest co-edited two early issues of South Bank Poetry magazine: Issue 6 (with founder editor, the late Peter Ebsworth) and Issue 11 (with Peter Ebsworth and Niall O’Sullivan). I was assistant editor of early issues.