Amanda Niamh Dawson

Poet

Sebastopol, CA
California US
Email: 
aniamhdawson@yahoo.com
Twitter/X: 
@AmandaN_Dawson

Author's Bio

Amanda Niamh Dawson was born in London to Irish parents and then raised in Boston. She attended Buckingham, Browne & Nichols School prior to receiving her BA in art history and French from Tufts University, the Ecole du Louvre, and the Sorbonne. She met her husband, a then MCA recording artist in a jazz hip-hop band while at Tufts. As a couple in New York in the 90’s, they carved out a life in music and law, art and magazines. Amanda worked at Sotheby’s in both Books & Manuscripts and Old Master Paintings, and then went on to join the editorial teams at Gourmet, and House Beautiful. Two children followed and moves to the west coast materialized. Amanda has remained active in antiques as a dealer and consultant as well as a freelance stylist. She now lives with her family an hour north of San Francisco on the Sonoma Coast and is a devoted gardener. She loves to explore rhyme and botanical themes in her poetry. Her work has appeared among others in The Avocet, The Bloom, Rosette Maleficarum, The Seraphic Review, The Ulu Review, Tiger Leaping Review, Hudson Valley Writers Guild, Woods Reader, GreenPrints Magazine, Action, Spectacle, and in Sebastopol Center for the Arts Writers Salon 2025 Anthology. Find Amanda on Instagram @thedawsonian

 

Publications & Prizes

Anthology:
Poetry Society of Michigan 2023 Peninsula Poets Anthology (The Poetry Society of Michigan, 2023)
Journals:
Action, Spectacle
,
Banyan Review
,
Dewdrop
,
Ekphrastic Review
,
Fib Review
,
Illumen
,
Kelp Journal
,
Lothlorien Poetry Journal
,
Pomona Valley Review
,
Roi Fainéant Press
,
Seventh Quarry/Swansea Wales
,
The Galway Review
,
The Literary Yard
,
The Piker Press
,
The Stray Branch
Prizes won: 

-2023 Poetry Society of Michigan's Peninsula Poets Contest in the category of Music - Honorable Mention for "Listening In"

 

Personal Favorites

Favorite authors: 
W.B. Yeats, Rumi, Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, Herman Hesse, Edna St.Vincent Millay, Walt Whitman, Baudelaire, Francis Ledwidge, H.D., A.E. Stallings, Maria Popova, Jay Parini, Luisa Muradyan, MFK Fisher
What I'm reading now: 
The Mythology of Plants - Botanical Lore from Ancient Greece and Rome by Annette Giesecke, Like by A.E. Stallings, Our Green Heart by Diana Beresford-Kroeger, Green Hermeticism by Peter L. Wilson, Christopher Banford, Kevin Townley, The Boss Dog by MFK Fisher, Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch by Henry Miller, Onward and Upward in the Garden by Katharine S. White, The Universe in Verse by Maria Popova, The Complete Poems of Francis Ledwidge by Liam O'Meara, It's All Greek by Alexander Tulloch, The Path of Most Resistance: Poems on Women in Science by Jessy Randall

More Information

Gives readings: 
Yes
Travels for readings: 
Yes
Identifies as: 
American
Prefers to work with: 
Any, Seniors
Fluent in: 
English, French
Born in: 
London
United Kingdom
Raised in: 
Boston, MA
Massachusetts
Please note: All information in the Directory is provided by the listed writers or their representatives.
Last update: Sep 28, 2025