Creator Spotlight: Saira Anwar
Featuring Award-Winning Poet Saira Anwar: A Conversation on Healing, Belonging, and the Power of Words
Creator Spotlight
This Week’s Featured Creator
This week, I’m delighted to introduce Saira Anwar, the writer behind Saira The Poet
Quick Introduction
I have been enjoying Saira’s treasured words, poetry, and friendship on Substack for over a year.
Her writing is filled with insight, courage, compassion, and wisdom that linger long after her words have circled your heart.
I had the privilege of reading Saira’s poetry collection, Rising From Despair. It is a journey of light, love, and inspiration. Each poem breathes hope into daily rhythms, offering encouragement with every turn of the page.
The accompanying writing prompts offer powerful, thoughtful questions that gently guide the reader toward deeper self-understanding and their own journey of healing and discovery.
Saira explores tender and universal themes, and you will find yourself returning to her poetry and words of hope, courage, and faith again and again.
I sincerely hope you enjoy getting to know Saira as much as I have.
Conversation with Saira Anwar
What is the heart of your Substack, and what do you hope readers experience when they spend time there?
This is a space for those learning to belong to themselves again. I write poetry and reflections on heartbreak, loss, self-abandonment, and rebuilding identity after emotional rupture. I share a weekly Friday newsletter featuring poems, reflections, and writing prompts with a growing community. I hope that when readers spend time here they feel seen, a little less alone, and reminded that their story is not over.
What inspired you to begin writing or creating on Substack?
My brother has been encouraging me since the beginning of my writing journey to start a newsletter. It was him who helped me put out the very first issue on 27th December 2024. In my first year I was finding my feet with how Substack works. I found it daunting and had no idea how it worked at first. But I have come to love doing a newsletter every week and am now in my second year.
Is there a topic, question, or idea that continually calls you back in your work?
Belonging. It is the thread that runs through everything I write. The question I keep returning to is how we find our way back to ourselves after heartbreak, loss, and self-abandonment. After experiences that stripped us of our confidence, our light, and our sense of who we are. That journey back to belonging, to yourself, to hope, is what my poetry and reflections are always reaching towards.
If your writing could make one meaningful difference in someone’s life, what would you hope that difference would be?
That they felt less alone. That they read a line and recognized something they had been carrying without words for it. I don’t write to fix anyone. I write to name what is real, to say I see you, and to remind them that what they lived through was always worth acknowledging. If someone closes my newsletter feeling a little less alone in their experience, that is everything.
A Favorite Photo
I would love to share photos from the year Rising From Despair came into the world. I chose these particular photos because they capture the milestones of Rising From Despair’s first year in the world.
The Strange Inc. Book Awards 2025
Indies Today Awards 2026 Semi-Finalist sticker represent two separate international recognitions from US based award organizations.
I am deeply grateful that the book continues to be recognized in literary spaces. The photos from Khushi Festival in August 2025 and MNW Grand Annual Open Mic Night in September 2025 show me performing and sharing my work with live audiences. And the photo from Ruth O’Reilly’s show on AllFM in July 2025 captures one of the earliest and most meaningful moments of the book’s journey, being celebrated on radio just weeks after publication.
I am deeply grateful for everyone who has walked this journey with me. Thank you to each person who has supported this book and believed in the power of healing through words. May this continue to be a book that meets people where they are, and reminds them they are not alone.
What is something (or several things) that brings you joy or peace in your everyday life outside of writing?
Outside of writing, my faith brings me the most grounding and peace. It is the anchor beneath everything I do. I find joy in family, in sharing meals together, and in the simple pleasure of a walk in nature.
I love reading, performing at open mic nights and events, and the warmth of meeting friends. And my Substack community has become a genuine source of connection and joy. The people who show up every Friday, who share their own journeys, who simply sit with the words, they mean more to me than I can say.
Celebrating Saira: Award-Winning Poet and Author of Rising From Despair: A Journey to Hope
Saira is an award-winning poet, author and spoken word artist, and the author of Rising From Despair: A Journey to Hope, Winner of the Strange Inc. Book Awards 2025 and Semi-Finalist in the Indies Today Awards 2026. Rising From Despair: A Journey to Hope celebrates its one-year anniversary on 27th June 2026.
What makes this book unique is that every poem comes with a journaling prompt, so you can begin your own healing journey alongside mine.
Available across Amazon, Waterstones, and all major retailers.
Signed and numbered copies available through my website:
Thank you so much for reading. Here is how to connect with Saira.
Creator Contact Information
Publication Name: Saira The Poet by Saira Anwar
If This Resonates With You
One of the most meaningful ways to support a creator is simply to read their work and stay connected to it.
If something here speaks to you, I encourage you to take a moment to explore Saira’s Substack.
You can also support their work in small but powerful ways:
Subscribe to their publication so you don’t miss new writing
Leave a comment to let them know what resonated
Restack or share a piece you loved
Pass their work along to someone who might need it
These small actions are what help independent writers continue creating and what make spaces like Substack feel alive.
Interested in Being Featured?
Creator Spotlight exists to celebrate writers, artists, and creators whose work brings meaning, reflection, creativity, and connection to the Substack community.
If you’d like to be considered for a future feature, feel free to reach out. I’m always open to discovering new voices and sharing work that deserves to be seen.
You may also enjoy this earlier reflection on lifting voices and supporting one another within the Substack community:
Want More Discoveries Like This?
If you’re enjoying Creator Spotlight, I invite you to subscribe to Savor Life Studio.
Each week, I feature a creator whose work brings insight, creativity, encouragement, and heart into the world.
If you’d like these discoveries delivered straight to your inbox, I’d love to have you join us at Savor Life Studio.
Thank you for being part of a space where creators support creators and thoughtful work is shared and celebrated. Your presence here means the world to me.
With much love and gratitude,
Lis 💖
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Creator Spotlight: Courtney Cunningham
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Congratulations, Saira! I love the cover of your book. I have a single flower on the cover of my poetry book as well (mine is a sunflower). What a great idea having prompts along with your poems! I’ve only ever seen one other poet do that and it’s James Crews. Lis, this is the first time I came across a Creator Spotlight in my feed, and I’m so glad I saw this one! The concept of belonging is so critical to all of us. In my case, as an adoptee, it is a constant theme. Lis, you did such a beautiful job with this in-depth presentation. I’m going to dive into the others and also reach out to you about being featured. 🥰 Well-done, both of you!
Thank you for shining the light, Lis! I sense the tender warmth and wisdom in Saira’s words. I will be following you both with great anticipation.🌸