If you’ve found your way here, welcome — you’re in the right place.
JamesAllenWrites.com is home to the written side of my work, gathered under one roof but spoken in a few different voices.
Some readers know me as The Sawdust Sage™, where everyday moments, workshop reflections, and the occasional sideways observation tend to turn into poetry and essays. The Sawdust Sage™ writes poetry, essays, and stories for thoughtful readers ages 12 and up.
Others arrive through Seamus Ailin™, where wonder, curiosity, and a slightly more whiskered perspective guide stories for younger readers — and the grown-ups who read with them. Seamus is the Gaelic form of James, and these works aim to express wonder and awe for the kid in all of us.
And sometimes, it’s simply James Allen, telling stories (and occasionally rendering opinions in something other than poetry) shaped by a Midwestern upbringing, a few decades of lived experience, and the firm belief that ordinary life is rarely as ordinary as it looks from the outside.
This site exists as a quiet home base — a place to browse the books, see where we’ll be set up at local markets, and occasionally read something new hot off the mental workbench.
If you happen to stop by a market table in person, don’t be shy. I’m always happy to personalize a copy or talk shop — literary or otherwise. And if you already own one of the books, you’re absolutely welcome to bring it along.
Thanks for being here.
— James Allen
The Sawdust Sage™