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sarahstarrmurphy.bsky.social
Sarah Starr Murphy
@sarahstarrmurphy.bsky.social
420 followers 400 following 140 posts
Managing editor @theforge.bsky.social Words Threepenny, Epiphany, elsewhere. Marathoner with #epilepsy ⚡️ starrmurphy.com she/her
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sarahstarrmurphy.bsky.social
I became a Whitaker fan thanks to Valerie Waterhouse - fitting to enjoy this with her brilliant afterward!

“Malachi’s 1939 memoir is more tightly controlled…. ‘What is the use of life?’ when uncertainty is all around, she asks, supplying the book’s unifying theme.”

@malachiwhitaker.bsky.social
Photo of And So Did I by Malachi Whitaker, a teal book resting on a sunlit wooden table. The cover is plain except for one stripe across the top that is from a photo of Whitaker’s eyes. The whole thing has an intense vibe.
October 14, 2025 at 11:11 AM
sarahstarrmurphy.bsky.social
The incomparable Yume Kitasei has done it again!! A brilliant novel about sisters willing to sail to the ends of the earth to find each other, through a world transformed by climate disaster. Immersive and funny as well as being simply beautifully written. Don’t miss it!!! @yumewrites.bsky.social
Photo of Saltcrop by Yume Kitasei, propped up against two whitish-orange pumpkins. The books cover is in deep jewel tones of magenta and blue, with a sailboat visible in the center.
October 1, 2025 at 11:41 AM
sarahstarrmurphy.bsky.social
l've been waiting for this memoir since I first read Camille's work and finally it's here and I have the time to read it properly! It's a stunner - achingly gorgeous writing that drops you straight into her world. Poetic language that doesn't pull its punches. Go find yourself a copy!!
Photo of How to be Unmothered by Camille U. Adams. Book has an orange cover with a design that looks like a dress torn into four pieces, each made of a black and white photo - an eye, a smiling mouth, a palm tree, and maybe a building? The book rests on a wooden table.
September 17, 2025 at 12:37 PM
sarahstarrmurphy.bsky.social
So delighted to see @camilleuadams.bsky.social featured in P&W and very surprised and honored to be mentioned! Working with writers is my favorite thing and I cannot wait to read Camille’s book!!

(You can read “Up Covigne Road” at forgelitmag.com/2023/03/20/u...)
Photo of Poets and Writers Magazine, text reads: "I am a Trinidadian writer," Unmothered: A Trinidadian Memoir (Restless Books, August 2023). "Not just a witer who was born and says Camille U. Adams, author of the memoir How to Be raised in Trinidad and Tobago and, thus, cites her birthplace in her bio. No. I am a writer who invokes the oral chantuelle tradition of my home. I am a writer who transcribes the unique idioms, is faithful to the grammatical structures, and channels the musical aurality embedded in our call-and-response narration when we enter storytelling mode." This musicality infuses all of Adams's prose, including her debut memoir, in which she narrates a childhood impacted by violence and abandonment. In reckoning with her family's abusive dynamics, Adams also draws on the island nation's colonial history, landscape, and storytelling traditions to create her own language of survival. Adams wrote How to Be Unmothered deliberately employing nonstandard spellings, which informed how she approached placing her excerpts in literary journals. "Telling the ugly truths of my family in beautiful poetic prose could never be undertaken authentically—| could never conduct what the reader feels and sees—if my work was being made subject to people pressuring me to pen my experiences in standard English, please," says Adams. "Thus, I sought out literary magazines whose editors, I believed, would not interfere in the summoned release." She found that with Sarah Starr Murphy, a managing editor of the Forge Literary Magazine (forgelitmag.com), which ran an excerpt of Adams's memoir. "With [Sarah] I experienced editing approached as a team," says Adams. The online magazine, which was established by volunteers from an international online writers forum, publishes fiction or nonfiction every week with an awareness of the "wide range of English variants used internationally."
June 16, 2025 at 11:06 PM
sarahstarrmurphy.bsky.social
Brilliant novel by James Stewart III - I was lucky to work with him to publish a version of the first chapter at Forge in 2021! His writing engages with small moments of family life and the intersection of race and class. Read his piece at Forge and treat yourself to this fantastic book!
Photo of the novel Defiant Acts by James Steward III. The cover has an illustration of what appears to be silhouettes of a crowd, none in blues, greens, and tans.
April 26, 2025 at 4:46 PM
sarahstarrmurphy.bsky.social
Got my hands on the print copy!! So far, I am loving Tameka Cage Conley’s poetry, especially “found: poems carved from letter,” which has the line “we beam archive: porch-happy, delicious.” Gorgeous!

Massive thanks again to everyone at River Styx. You’ve been a dream mag!
Photo of the magazine River Styx issue 108, held up against a festively lit tropical tree. The cover is black and white with what appear to be drawings of statues emerging from sand.
January 4, 2025 at 9:43 PM
sarahstarrmurphy.bsky.social
Completely surprised and very honored to have my story “The Heretic’s Tale” listed under Special Mentions in the 2025 Pushcart Prize anthology!!! Eternal gratitude to Epiphany for publishing this story reimagining the medieval tale of badass St Elizabeth of Hungary.

epiphanyzine.com/features/her...
Photo of list of Pushcart Special mentions, including “The Heretic’s Tale” by Sarah Starr Murphy.
December 6, 2024 at 6:32 PM
sarahstarrmurphy.bsky.social
False turkey tail mushrooms (I think!) from a much needed midday hike.
Close up photo of false turkey tail mushrooms on dead tree - they are shaped sort of like oysters, stick out from the bark, and have beautiful curved stripe/rings similar to a wild turkey’s feathers.
November 15, 2024 at 8:25 PM
sarahstarrmurphy.bsky.social
Once again, thank you so much @riverstyxmag !! Delighted to be in such amazing company- best of luck all!
A screenshot with a red background, nominees for Best American Short Stories from River Styx. Text reads: THE BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES NOMINATIONS Sarah Starr Murphy "Clever Girls" [RS 108] Scott Nadelson "Gigantic" [RS 108] Meera Rohit Kumbhani "Lest She Go Off" [RS 107] Abby Manzella "The Stately Old Chemistry Building" [RS Online]
November 13, 2024 at 4:17 PM
sarahstarrmurphy.bsky.social
In a surprising run of good news, this today from the good people at River Styx! Truly nothing better than having amazing editors champion your work. Best of luck all!
A blue screenshot of a list of Pushcart nominations from River Styx that reads: PUSHCART PRIZE NOMINATIONS Scott Nadelson "Gigantic" Sarah Starr Murphy "Clever Girls" Red Danielson "Wisteria" Alicia Rebecca Myers "The Thirteenth Guest" Pamela Baker "Mechanical Treatments and Other Restorative Plans" Tobey Ward "Notes on the First Trimester"
November 13, 2024 at 1:57 AM
sarahstarrmurphy.bsky.social
This Sunday!! Flash fiction and nonfiction, $1,000 for winners. We’re very proud to offer limited free submissions - they’ll go fast, so submit early!
The logo for The Forge Literary Magazine, an anvil, hammer, and curled piece of reddened iron. Text reads: Our annual flash competition opens September 1st. $1000 prize.
August 30, 2024 at 1:34 PM
sarahstarrmurphy.bsky.social
Thrilled to have one of my saint stories in this beautiful issue of Potomac Review! Looking forward to reading through the whole issue tonight!
A copy of the literary magazine Potomac Review, issue 74, lies on a brightly colored rug. The magazine cover features a photograph of a great blue heron. A photograph of the first few lines of the short story Revelation, by Sarah Starr Murphy. It begins: Her mother named her Margaret, but the name slid off the infant’s greasy, vernix-coated skin. Everyone who loved the child called her Sweet One.
March 10, 2024 at 10:21 PM
sarahstarrmurphy.bsky.social
I’m choosing stories this month! Free subs open now but we hit our cap quickly. Send us something spectacular!
Screenshot of The Forge Literary Magazine’s Submittable page.
February 1, 2024 at 5:36 PM
sarahstarrmurphy.bsky.social
Weekend plans in the form of Sommer Schafer’s debut collection!!
A copy of The Women by Sommer Schafer rests against a white pumpkin on brick steps. The cover of the book is a dark image of woman, one hand up, her face and shoulders obscured by flowers and leaves.
November 17, 2023 at 12:59 PM
sarahstarrmurphy.bsky.social
Incredibly excited to get my copy of The Blue Monsoon!! It’s a chilling, thrilling fall read from the brilliant Damyanti Biswas. I’m so proud to call her a colleague - congrats Damyanti!!
A copy of The Blue Monsoon by Damyanti Biswas propped against a window. Through the window are trees with fall leaves. Next to the book are several decorative antique glass bottles.
October 30, 2023 at 12:23 AM
sarahstarrmurphy.bsky.social
Opens today!! Our free entries for low-income writers are going fast so please submit soon if you need one.
Image of metal forge with anvil and hot iron. Text reads: The Forge Literary Magazine: Our annual flash fiction and nonfiction competition opens 1st September. $1,000 prize for 1st. Place winners. $5 Entry Fee. (Free subs available.)
September 1, 2023 at 11:49 PM