Meet Move Me Monthly's Guest Judge, Sabina Laura

The first ever Move Me Monthly cash prize poetry contest is almost here, so if you haven’t gotten your submissions in, you’ll want to soon.

This month’s judge is the extremely talented, thoughtful, and intelligent, Sabina Laura.

She is a writer, poet, and illustrator based in the UK. Many of you may be familiar with her work from Instagram where she has 73.5K followers and averages around 3K likes for each post. One of the things that drew us to Sabina is that not only does her work move us, but she is also a dedicated lover of words with a degree in English Language and Linguistics.

A few of the things that stood out to us about Sabina is how her passion for poetry comes through in her work. Her debut book, Moonflower, is a collection of poetry about growing even in darkness.

Here is an excerpt:

We often talk about poetry being a form of therapy and you can see how deeply her words resonate. She walks us through what it feels like to be in the darkness, yet still find ways to grow through the pain to find the light.

Sabina’s second book is called, All This Wild Hope. In this book, she looks at the different kinds of hope – “the hope we long for, the hope we learn to find, and the hope that heals us. This book is a reminder to find joy in the smallest places and hold it close. To open the windows wide and let the light in. To let hope breathe life back into everything.”

What would life be without hope?

And finally, her most recent project includes a poetry journal titled, A little sunshine and a little rain. What we love about this book is it was written with the beginner poet in mind. She gives brief examples about the different techniques and forms used in poetry to help budding poets grow their skill set. She then provides various prompts to guide the reader into creating their own poems.

She writes, “Poetry changes the way we see the world. It requires us to search for deeper details, making us more aware of the things around us…But most important of all, poetry is a way of expressing ourselves. We all have unique experiences to write about, and whether it’s love, loneliness, anger or happiness, writing can help us to understand and explain these feelings.”

We couldn’t agree more.

Here is a sample page from her journal:

Sabina has graciously volunteered her time with us because of her love of poetry, her understanding of what it means to emerge as a writer in today’s age, and her desire to help others grow in self-expression. It would mean the world to us if you took the time to give back to her by supporting her writing endeavors on all social media platforms.

You can find her poetry inspiration online @sabinalaurapoetry and @growyourpoetry and the rest of her work here.