Sarah Barnsley’s first full collection of poetry, The Thoughts, has just been published by Smith|Doorstop. Described by the publisher as ‘[a]n assured and inventive debut,’ The Thoughts ‘explores different manifestations of intrusive thoughts as part of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) before navigating through the twists and turns of recovery and love. These poems inhabit therapists’ treatment rooms, waiting rooms, and everyday documents, appearing in such varied forms as emails, research proposals and kids’ puzzles. Compassionate and at times painfully humorous, The Thoughts is an act of advocacy, giving voice to critically underrepresented experiences of illness through poems that are as peculiar and creative as they are arresting.’ You can read more about The Thoughts – including a sample – on the publisher’s website: The Poetry Business
It’s perhaps fitting that Barnsley draws on two figures from American literature for the epigraphs to the book – Emily Dickinson and Edgar Allan Poe. ‘Both have shaped my thinking about my topic in some way,’ says Barnsley, ‘not least the fact that Poe was perhaps one of the first to represent experiences of intrusive thoughts in his short story “The Imp of the Perverse”. Indeed, this story inspired the title of a psychology book of great interest – and support – to me, Lee Baer’s The Imp of the Mind: Exploring the Silent Epidemic of Obsessive Bad Thoughts (Plume, 2002). It’s since struck me how often examples of obsessive-compulsive thinking turn up in the American literature I’ve taught, from Henry James’ “The Beast in the Jungle” to Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage. Even The Imp of the Mind references Herman Melville’s work. I’ve long thought this would make an excellent PhD topic.’
Sarah Barnsley will be reading from The Thoughts at the Goldsmiths’ Writers Centre on 23 March 2022. You can find about more about her work and upcoming readings here: https://sarahbarnsleypoet.co.uk/.
