Publications

family bible devotional, cover, sarah m wells, sarah wells
Between the Heron and the Moss: Poems
To Say One Million Times, Wow!

Books

“Calling, Creativity, and Paying Attention,” Interview with Brandon Davis Wells on Caller ID Podcast

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify Podcasts, or YouTube.

Articles and Essays, Online and In-Print

(In addition to the pieces below, I’m a regular contributor to the God Hears Her blog from Our Daily Bread)

Published Poems, Online and In-Print

  • “Vermiculture,” The Christian Century (forthcoming)
  • “The Meaning of Prairie Dogs” and “After Her Death I Inherit My Grandmother’s Lysol,” Rock & Sling
  • “Jesus, Son of Gop,” Reformed Journal (January 7, 2025) with a podcast interview about the poem here.
  • “The Name” and “Over Flyover Country,” Reformed Journal (September 2021).
  • “Savasana,” Windhover (2019).
  • “Anatomy of the Mother of God,” Whale Road Review (2018).
  • “Eclipsed,” Whiskey Island (2017).
  • “Of Thee I Sing,” Rattle: Poets Respond (July 24, 2016).
  • “Blessed are the Meek,” Rock & Sling, 11.1 (Spring 2016).
  • “Night Swim,” appeared in Every Day Poems January 9, 2014.
  • “Like a Wet Nose on Your Cheek,” Ascent (October 2013).
  • “‘Where Is Heaven?'” and “Sugar Snap Peas,” In Touch Magazine (November 2013).
  • “Easter Flowers,” “No Trespassing,” and “Nothing,” The Common online feature (fall/winter 2013).
  • Four poems from Pruning Burning Bushes reprinted in Exhale (September 2013).
  • “Running,” Poetry East (Fall 2013).
  • “Seasonal Work,” appeared in Every Day Poems April 1, 2013.
  • “Rappelling,” Chautauqua Journal (2013).
  • “Harvest Meal” and “Calling Hours,” Rock & Sling (2013).
  • “Jesus and the Herd of Pigs,” The Common (2014).
  • “Explaining Easter,” “Sunbathing,” “What Is a Miracle?” Relief: A Quarterly Christian Expression (2013).
  • “A Christmas Poem,” Christianity & Literature (forthcoming).
  • “Rumble Strip,” The Cresset (Christmas 2012).
  • “Picture Book,” Puerto del Sol (Winter 2012).
  • “Making the Bed,” New Ohio Review (Fall 2012).
  • “Creek Walk,” Verse Daily (August 12, 2012).
  • “My Mother’s Kitchen,” Alimentum, Issue 13 (Winter 2012).
  • “Casa Blanca Lily,” Poetry East, #71 (Fall 2011).
  • “Sifted as Wheat,” Measure: A Review of Formal Poetry, Vol. 5:1 (2011).
  • “Daylily,” r.kv.r.y (April 2011).
  • “Cascade Valley,” Ascent (January 2011).
  • “The Swale,” Floorboard Review, #1 (January 2011).
  • “Let’s Go Fly a Kite,” Vending Machine: Poems for Change (November 2010).
  • “Stumps,” The Fourth River, Issue 7 (Winter 2010).
  • “Junction,” Poetry for the Masses, Vol. 3, No. 2 (November 2010).
  • “Honky-Tonk Bride,” Rock & Sling (online October 25, 2010).
  • “Interference” and “Rain Dance,” Nimrod: International Journal of Prose and Poetry , Awards 32 (Fall/Winter 2010).
  • “The ladies’ quilting club is out today,” Literary Mama (May 2010).
  • “Angry,” Windhover: A Journal of Christian Literature (January 2010).
  • “Hymn of Skin,” JAMA (The Journal of the American Medical Association), Vol. 303, No. 9 (March 3, 2010).
  • “Dent de Lion,” Christianity and Literature (June 2010).
  • “The Peony: To the Ant”, Common Threads (2009).
  • “Singing Birds,” The New Formalist, Vol. 8, No. 2 (2009).
  • “Pruning Burning Bushes,” Relief: A Quarterly Christian Expression, Vol. 2, No. 4 (2008).

Awards and Recognition:

  • Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Artist Award Winner
  • “Not-My-Husband,” listed as a notable essay in Best American Essays 2018
  • “The Body Is Not a Coffin,” listed as a notable essay in Best American Essays 2017
  • “The Body Is Not a Coffin,” nominated by Under the Gum Tree for a Pushcart Prize in 2016
  • “Human Resources Training” listed as a notable essay in Best American Essays 2015
  • “Field Guide…” anthologized in Read Before You Write: A Workbook Anthology in Memoir, edited by Lisa Ohlen Harris, Hess Creek Publishing, 2016.
  • “Field Guide…” listed as a notable essay in Best American Essays 2014
  • “Field Guide…” nominated by Brevity for a Pushcart Prize in 2013
  • “Country Boys, City Boys” listed as a notable essay in Best American Essays 2013
  • “Those Summers, These Days” listed as a notable essay in Best American Essays 2012
  • Poetry manuscript, Pruning Burning Bushes, one of five finalists for the 2012 T.S. Eliot Prize through Truman State University Press
  • Chapbook manuscript, Against the Ground, one of five finalists for the 2010 Wick Poetry Chapbook Open Competition
  • Poetry for the Masses nominated “Junction” for a Pushcart Prize in 2010
  • Received a scholarship to attend the 2010 West Chester Poetry Conference
  • Received a partial scholarship to attend the 2010 Key West Literary Seminar
  • “The Angry Gardener” selected as honorable mention in the Akron Art Museum’s New Words 2009 Poetry Contest
  • Poetry from Acquiesce nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2009
  • Nominated for a fellowship to the 2010 Breadloaf Writer’s Conference