This Was Your Mother
Dreich Press (2024)
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'Sam Szanto has created a glorious celebration of love, life and loss'
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'Gliding skilfully between past and present sne invokes powerful imagery and lyrical, evocative language.'
Annie Cowell
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'I recommend reading and re-reading this collection.'
Candice Kelsey
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'Here are poems to love'
Catherine Graham (UK)
To purchase a copy from Sam, email sam.szanto@gmail.com - also available from Dreich Press
A review by Peter Mladinic was published in Tears in the Fence Literary Journal.
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Full review here: https://tearsinthefence.com/2024/04/06/this-was-your-mother-by-sam-szanto-dreich/
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About Sam Szanto
Sam Szanto grew up in Eastbourne, East Sussex, the daughter of an astrologer/barrister and a psychiatric nurse.
Her jobs have included ice cream seller, Lush retailer and marketing for a national blind charity, and working as a freelance copy-editor, proofreader and English tutor since 2009. She has an MA with distinction in Writing Poetry from the Poetry School London / Newcastle University, and is currently working on a practice-led PhD on mother-poetry and identity at York St John University.
A gypsy by nature, Sam has lived all over the country. After 20 years in London, she moved with her family (husband, two children and aged cat) to Durham in 2021.
Her surname is Hungarian and is pronounced (in English) San-to. She's heard all the Santa jokes.
Sam's Books
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Sam's poetry pamphlet 'If This Was Your Mother' was selected as one of the winners of the 2023 Dreich Chapbook Contest and was published by Dreich Press in 2024. To buy a copy contact Sam
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'Splashing Pink', a collaborative poetry pamphlet by Sam and Annie Cowell, was published by Hedgehog Press in 2023. It was selected as a Winter 2023 Pamphlet Choice by the Poetry Society. To buy a copy click here
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Over 100 of Sam's stories and poems have been published/ listed in competitions. As well as her many published stories, she has won the Shooter Flash Fiction Contest and the Mum Life Stories Prize. As a poet, she won the 2020 Charroux Prize and the First Writers International Poetry Prize. Her work has appeared in a number of international literary journals, including The North, Northern Gravy and The Storms.
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Sam's short story collection 'If No One Speaks' was published by Alien Buddha Press in 2022. It is available to buy on Amazon.
Short Stories
Sam has had 50 stories published and/or listed for competitions.
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Prize-winning Work
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A live reading of '125', a winner in the 2020 Literary Taxidermy Competition:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMiYvuG2fRs
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A live reading of 'The Cleaner', which won first prize in the 2022 Shooter Flash Competition:
https://letsgetpublished.com/live-reading-the-cleaner-by-sam-szanto/?fbclid=IwAR0sciCt91rgIK5oOkCQVe-w2e5trvnnjM6pBbajjClyB8trj5v89_aNLQ8
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'Always Remembered', a micro-fiction piece that won first prize in the Mum Life Stories contest in 2022:
https://www.mumlifestories.com/micro-fiction-writing-competition-winners-s2-round-5/
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‘If No One Speaks’, the titular story of Sam’s collection and which won second prize in the Writer's Mastermind Competition in 2022:
https://letsgetpublished.com/if-no-one-speaks-sam-szanto/
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‘Quiet Love’ won third prize in the 2021 Erewash Open Short Story Competition:
https://erewashwriterscompetition.weebly.com/winning-entries-to-open-short-story-competition-2021.html
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Poems
Sam has had nearly 80 poems published and/or listed for competitions.
Sam's poem 'Snow White is Homeless' won the 2024 Wirral Festival Open Poetry Competition.
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Read the poem:
Sam’s poem ‘Night-light’, written three weeks after her first child was born, won first prize in the First Writer International Poetry Competition. It is also published in Sam's book Splashing Pink.
https://www.firstwriter.com/competitions/poetry_competition/winners/12thpoetry.shtml
​​‘My Son’s Life-Story Book’ was the winner of the 2020 Charroux Prize for Poetry.​
Read the poem:
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​‘So we will leave before they come with guns’ won second prize in the Hammond House International Poetry Prize 2019 and is published in their Leaving anthology.
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Read the poem:
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​'Wedding Dress Shopping with my Mother' won third prize in the 2024 Southport Poetry Competition.
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Read the poem:
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'Those Who Don't Exist' was highly commended by Glyn Maxwell for the 2022 AUB Poetry Prize and published in their prizewinners' anthology.
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​A link to Sam reading the poem is here: https://www.facebook.com/512782722/videos/593216812540624/
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In 2023, Northern Gravy published three of Sam's poems.
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​Read the poem here: A Trail of Two Cities pdf
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In 2024, Ink Sweat and Tears published 'Memories'
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Read the poem here: https://inksweatandtears.co.uk/sam-szanto/
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​All the poems, stories and text on this site is copyright to Sam Szanto and should not be reproduced without her permission.
In 2022, Sam's poem 'A Trail of Two Cities' was chosen by Andrew McMillan and Stephanie Sy-Quia to feature in 'The North #68' published by The Poetry Business.
