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

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Poetry | "A LIVING WILL" was published September 1st, 2026 by The Esthetic Apostle. "A LIVING WILL" is one of the free verse poems Sarah has crafted in the last year as she processes grief, widowhood, and adapting to a new home. It is likely part of the collection she appears to be writing that orbits the death of her husband and oldest daughter, as well as her parents, and so many close friends, but is also an investigation on girlhood/womanhood/motherhood/widowhood. The piece is in loose conversation with Anne Sexton's, "Housewife," but also not at all. It is the seventh poem Sarah's ever published, and the sixth one she's published in 2026. The publication date coincides with what would have been Sarah's paternal grandmother's 116th birthday. While she did not dedicate it to Ada Alma Minnie Luedke Schantz officially, she will do so here, in a way that is as loose as the poem is a dialogue with Sexton. READ "A LIVING WILL" HERE: https://estheticapostle.org/pieces/a-living-will/ 

 

Two Poems & Short Fiction | "THE TRIGEMINAL NERVE" (a ghazal) & "THIS IS NOT MY FIRST APOCALYPSE" (a villanelle) debuted in Not Quite Right on June 1st, 2026, along a reprint of Sarah's short story, "THANK YOU FOR COMING": To have three pieces published in this journal is an honor, but especially because Schantz has now had six poems published total 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 ethics involved in the practice (as it currently stands in today's world) and efforts made by Schantz and their daughter to stop the process (during the first hours of total 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 with 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 (presumably used for grafting). Please note, neither Schantz nor her family are/were opposed to organ donation, 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. One only needs to follow the money. 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; furthermore, it's questionable why a medical decision such as organ donation isn't one a person makes with their doctor or  medical professional of some kind; 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 be informed about the matter, and you can't be present to support loved ones whose mourning might be interrupted by the immediacy and violence of the procedure. READ "THE TRIGEMINAL NERVE," "THIS IS NOT MY FIRST APOCALYPSE" & "THANK YOU FOR COMING" 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/