Hi! I am Sara Sumner. I am a writer, editor and teacher, originally from Toronto now living in Israel.

This is my first half-marathon. As I am Sabbath observant, I am not able to write on Saturdays, so I will be doing the second half-marathon beginning at 4 am Sunday morning my time.

I have traditionally published two novels, one for adults and one for kids. And my poetry has occasionally been published in magazines. But, sadly, I don’t write as much poetry as I used to.

I have never written poetry on demand like this. Normally, poetry is a magical type of writing that flows from my pen in moments of high emotion. My heart sings of pain or power, of jilting or joy, of hope and fear and to take a cliché, I open a vein and bleed on paper.

But lately, my writing has become too mechanical. I feel like I am forcing myself to write commercially and it is stifling my voice. I hope that poetry can be the magic pill to heal my laryngitis.

I wish everyone much luck in the upcoming marathon and look forward to reading some of the beautiful poetry you come up with.

Thank you for organizing this amazing program. I like forward to participating!

Sara Corryn