MANCHESTER-BY-THE-SEA — Sarah Beckmann just wanted to paint images of life itself.
But instead of using paint brushes, THE Manchester-by-the-Sea native employed words to create her canvas of life.
Beckmann, who now lives in Somerville, used the word images to craft poetic stories taken from Greek mythology, the sport of rowing, family history and women’s rights issues in her book “The Race for Daphne.”
The poems in “The Race for Daphne,” including a crown of sonnets, an erasure and a sestina, explore the narrative to which she was born. The collection takes the reader from Long Island, to Ireland, to Hades and eventually the marshes of Lerna.
“I would summarize these poems as narrative, long-form, sequential/series-based,with an emphasis on traditional poetic forms and new ways of exploring free verse and disrupting those same traditional forms,” Beckmann said.
The poems are mainly derived from her graduate thesis manuscript — she graduated with a master’s degree from Emerson College in 2023.
Beckmann frequently alludes to the water and ocean in her works.
“My love for the beach and anything water-related originally stemmed from my upbringing in Manchester, as well as the summers I spent on Long Island, N.Y. where I have additional family,” she said.
Beckmann graduated from Manchester Essex Regional High School in 2014. Then, she attended Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, before attending Emerson College in Boston.
But Beckmann still has a soft spot in her heart for Cape Ann.
“My parents have a house in Manchester and I still visit all the time,” she said.
Beckmann said her varied life experiences, especially her connection to the arts world, are the basis for her writings.
But it is the people who have touched her life that may have provided the greatest inspiration — including those in the rowing world.
“I moved from Boston to Somerville towards the end of my graduate education, and after the height of the (COVID-19) pandemic, in order to live in a more residential area,” she said. “The vibrant arts community in Somerville also drew me, as well as the Gentle Giant Rowing Club on the Mystic River.”
Beckmann’s “The Race for Daphne” can be obtained from Finishing Line Press at https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/the-race-for-daphne-by-sarah-c-beckmann/. The book was originally priced at $22.99 but is now being offered for $20.99 and is available for preorder through March 13. The official release date is May 8.
The publisher is also accepting checks and money orders for the book at Finishing Line Press, P.O. Box 1626, Georgetown, KY 40324.