Please Note: This page is a work-in-progress and does not yet include all of Schantz's online publications. ​

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Two Poems and Short Fiction | "THE TRIGEMINAL NERVE" (a ghazal) & "THIS IS NOT MY FIRST APOCALYPSE" (a villanelle) debuted in Not Quite Right on June 1st, 2026, alongside a reprint of my short story, "THANK YOU FOR COMING": To have three pieces published in this journal is an honor, but especially because Schantz has now had three poems published total (and has two more coming out soon in the next issue of Bombay Gin) when she never considered herself a poet before; to top it all off, the poems in this issue of Not Quite Right are both formal poetry, and the first attempts she ever made at either form. While you can read about the story behind "THANK YOU FOR COMING" in the item listed below, these two poems speak to the experience of widowhood, of aging as a woman in our culture, having a libido when you don't want one because you're grieving, it also indirectly grapples with the fact Schantz's husband had his organs harvested after death despite his distrust of the practice and efforts made by Schantz and her daughter to stop the process while in the first hours of shock and acute grief; a series of mistakes, misinformation, and manipulation led to his wishes not being honored and his corneas were removed and ended up in two different people in the United Kingdom. While the family was told only his femurs would be taken, all the bones in both legs, from his hips to his toes were removed, and presumably used for grafting. Please note, neither Schantz nor her husband are (or were) opposed to the practice, but they understand/understood that no matter how life-saving the industry can be (or masquerades to be), there is much to the business that needs to be investigated and further scrutinized. For example, a recent article in The New York Times explores an alarming rise of organ donations linked to new protocols regarding how and when death is now determined, and an alarming number of "corpses" awaking during the harvesting process. Most people don't know they can fill out detailed forms where they have more choices about how and when their bodies are used, and it's questionable why a medical decision isn't one made with one's doctor; it makes sense to register to vote at the DMV because you can always change your mind when an election rolls around, yet you can't change your mind about your body being harvested if you are dead, nor are you present to question how your remains will be used, let alone informed, and you can't support your loved ones whose mourning might be interrupted by the immediacy and violence of the procedure). You can read the two poems and reprint of the short story here:  https://notquiterightmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/unlabeled_final3.pdf

 

Short Fiction | "THANK YOU FOR COMING": this story was shortlisted for a contest judged by Aimee Bender and hosted by Fractured Lit before ultimately finding a home at About Place Literary Journal through the Black Earth Institute on June 11th, 2024 (the publication went live on the author's 48th birthday no less!). READ "THANK YOU FOR COMING" HERE: https://aboutplacejournal.org/issues/strange-wests/wild-habitations/sarah-elizabeth-schantz/

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Short Fiction | "GERANIUMS FOR AUTUMN": this story was published in April, 2024, by Gulf Stream Magazine after being a Writer's Digest finalist for short fiction in 2022; READ "GERANIUMS FOR AUTUMN" HERE: https://gulfstreamlitmag.com/2024/04/16/geraniums-for-autumn/

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Poetry | "Swan Soup": this poem was published in the Everyday Chimeras-themed issue of Hunger Mountain in April of 2019 and will be republished in a forthcoming anthology featuring women writers from the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics in 2024. READ "SWAN SOUP" HERE: https://hungermtn.org/swan-soup/

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Short Fiction | "THE BREAKING WHEEL": was a double-finalist for two different contests hosted by Hunger Mountain who published it in November of 2012 (this story is a former version of a chapter from what would become Schantz's debut novel, Fig (Simon & Schuster 2015), and it was through this publication she came to be "discovered" by her literary agent Heather Schroder at Compass Talent. Before this, the story was a top five finalist for a competition hosted by Cream City Review; a semi-finalist for an award hosted by Nimrod Literary Journal; and a special mention for the Salem College 2012 International Literary Awards—the judge, Kate Bernheimer (editor of The Fairy Tale Review) said this about the story: "The diction, details, and voice . . . are irresistible . . . This was just great—eccentric, emotive, hilarious, comedic, and dark. Intoxicating really." LeeAnn Holmes, one of the preliminary judges wrote: "This story was one of my immediate favorites. The imagery alone is enough to capture the reader . . . this piece was entertaining, memorable, and full of dark humor."

READ "THE BREAKING WHEEL" HERE:  https://hungermtn.org/the-breaking-wheel/

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Short Fiction | "DOWN IN THE WATER": won The Fulton Prize hosted by The Adirondack Review and was published in the Winter 2017 edition; in December, 2020 (after a problematic release delayed due to a pandemic known as COVID-19, the story (prose-poem) was published as a chapbook by Gesture Press. READ "DOWN IN THE WATER" HERE: http://adirondackreview.homestead.com/sarahelizabethschantz_2017.html

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Short Fiction | "NEWS ITEM": was published in the Summer 2012 of The Adirondack Review. Sarah wrote the story for her first undergraduate class at Naropa University when her not yet mentor-to-be Bobbie Louise Hawkins assigned her students to craft a story using a real newspaper article. Sarah continues this tradition and now teaches her own version of this prompt and has even designed a workshop around it. Rio Liang reviewed this issue of the journal and wrote this about Schantz's story: "Sprouting from a simple news blurb about a woman caught using the carpool lane with a baby doll as her passenger, Ms Schantz’s story expands into a tragic portrait of the aforementioned woman, Roberta Hallmark, a drug addict who had previously lost her children. Our author doesn’t withhold from grit in her portrayal of Roberta; we learn of her propensity at age 42 for skimp (“She is caught in narcissistic memories”), of her lack of a filter (i.e. her brazen exhibition of her prolapsed uterus), and her consequent lack of friends. She is, as one might be inclined to call her, typical white trash. Ms Schantz of course doesn’t seek to condemn Roberta, but rather elicit sympathy for her subject. We are thus made privy, unlike the cop who had pulled over Roberta, to her having presumably gone mad, the baby doll being a stand-in for her late baby, a substitute to fill the void of her wasted life." READ "NEWS ITEM" HERE: http://adirondackreview.homestead.com/sarahelizabethschantz.html

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Creative Nonfiction | "A LIST THAT NEVER ENDS": This lyric essay was published by Fiction Attic in March of 2016. READ "A LIST THAT NEVER ENDS" HERE: http://fictionattic.com/a-list-that-never-ends/