Sarah A. Sousa and Her Creative New England Family

Sarah A. Sousa is a poet, visual artist, textile artist, and multidisciplinary creator who draws inspiration from landscape, history, family, and handmade goods. Sousa has a separate musical identity despite being the wife of Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Ray LaMontagne. Her poetry, collage, historical study, weaving, spinning, dyeing, and other textiles show her interest in human traces.

Sousa was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, on November 9, 1972, and raised in Dracut by working-class parents. Her childhood was molded by mill-town history, French Canadian and Portuguese ancestors, and schooling. Her mother borrowed to pay for her education, despite though neither of her parents went to college. Sousa’s creative life was influenced by that family heritage.

Sarah A. Sousa Early Life and Education

Sousa attended Greenmont Avenue School and Englesby Junior High before graduating from Dracut High School in 1990. She has described herself as a shy and fairly average student who found few opportunities for serious creative writing during her school years. Theater gave her one avenue into artistic expression, but writing eventually became the central thread.

Her path into higher education began at Middlesex Community College, which at the time was located in Lowell’s historic Boott Cotton Mills. There, she took her first creative writing class and discovered that writing could become more than an interest. It could become a way of seeing the world.

She later transferred to Bradford College in Haverhill, Massachusetts, where she majored in Creative Writing with an emphasis on fiction and poetry. Her studies included literature courses devoted to women writers, Franz Kafka, Jorge Luis Borges, and other influential literary traditions. The small, arts-focused environment helped shape her emerging voice.

Sousa eventually earned an MFA in creative writing, concentrating on poetry and literature, from Bennington College. Her education was not simply a sequence of degrees. It became part of a longer apprenticeship in observation, language, history, and the complicated relationship between people and place.

A Poet Drawn to History and Place

Sousa’s poetry frequently explores women’s voices, motherhood, landscape, violence against women and girls, mythology, fairy tales, material culture, and the spaces between independence and connection. Her writing often feels interested in what remains after the obvious story has disappeared.

Her first major poetry collection, Church of Needles, was published by Red Mountain Press in 2014 after winning the 2013 Red Mountain Poetry Prize. She followed it with Split the Crow in 2015 and See the Wolf in 2018. The latter was later recognized as a Massachusetts “Must Read” selection.

Her chapbook work has included Yell, an erasure project based on Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper, and Hex, which received a chapbook prize. These projects demonstrate her interest in taking existing language and transforming it into something new, much like an artist layering fragments of paper into a collage.

Another important project was The Diary of Esther Small, 1886. Sousa discovered the diary of a Maine farmwife in an antique store and developed it into a published historical and literary work. The diary offered a window into the life of a woman who had experienced abuse and lived within the constraints of nineteenth-century rural society.

That discovery reflects one of the defining characteristics of Sousa’s work: she often looks for stories that have survived quietly.

Sarah Sousa and Ray LaMontagne

Sarah A. Sousa’s personal life is closely connected to musician Ray LaMontagne, although both have generally maintained a private family life.

Ray LaMontagne, born Raymond Charles Jack LaMontagne on June 18, 1973, is a Grammy-winning singer-songwriter known for his distinctive voice and folk, soul, and roots-oriented music. Sousa and LaMontagne have known each other since childhood. Their relationship eventually developed into marriage and a long creative partnership.

Before LaMontagne became an internationally recognized musician, he worked factory and carpentry jobs. The couple built their family life during those earlier years, long before the scale of his music career changed their circumstances.

LaMontagne has written songs inspired by Sousa, including “Sarah,” which appeared on his 2008 album Gossip in the Grain. Their relationship has therefore existed not only as a family bond but also as an influence on artistic expression.

The couple have supported one another’s creative pursuits. Sousa pursued her MFA while raising their children, and the family at various points embraced homeschooling and a rural lifestyle. Their partnership has been shaped by work, art, family, restoration, and a strong preference for privacy.

The LaMontagne Family and Rural Life

Sousa and LaMontagne raised their sons on a historic Ashfield, Massachusetts farm for years. Their family history was tied to the 103–104-acre land.

The couple restored the property for years after buying it for $1.05 million in 2008 or 2009. The 10,000–11,000-square-foot historic house had barns, other structures, historical elements, and LaMontagne’s music room.

The farm was more than a home. A creative environment emerged. Gardening, animal husbandry, natural fiber work, building restoration, art, and music recording shared the same landscape.

Artistically, Sousa reflects this atmosphere. She describes rural living as a physical interaction with the soil that includes farming, foraging, spinning, weaving, and producing things from local resources.

The home sold for $4.5 million in 2023 after listing for $5.25 million. The sale was a major family change. Sousa and LaMontagne looked forward to another chapter in New England after their sons were grown.

Tobias LaMontagne and His Visual Art

One of Sarah Sousa and Ray LaMontagne’s sons is Tobias LaMontagne, who has developed a career in filmmaking and visual art.

Tobias works across directing, editing, color work, photography, and other visual forms. His creative interests have also brought him into close collaboration with his father.

He has worked on music videos and visual projects connected to Ray LaMontagne’s music, including projects associated with songs such as “Such a Simple Thing,” “Part of the Light,” “We’ll Make It Through,” and “Strong Enough.”

Tobias has also created stop-motion work, including projects such as The Book Club and The List. His career illustrates another dimension of the family’s artistic environment. Creativity appears in different forms across generations, with music, poetry, film, photography, and visual art occupying different branches of the same family tree.

His work also reflects the family’s connection to storytelling through images. Where Sousa may build a poem from fragments of history or weave plant fibers into cloth, Tobias can construct a narrative through moving images, color, editing, and sound.

Sebastian LaMontagne and His Interest in Place

The family’s other son, Sebastian LaMontagne, has followed a different professional path.

Sebastian studied Society, Culture, and Thought at Bennington College, the same institution where his mother earned her MFA. His academic work included a thesis concerning a historical cult, reflecting an interest in culture, history, and social structures.

His professional interests have included development and communications, as well as work connected to land preservation and local food systems. He has also been associated with nonprofit organizations, including the Franklin Land Trust, and has had experience with a music management agency.

Like his mother, Sebastian has a strong connection to place. Having grown up in New England, including years in Ashfield, he has described himself in terms that emphasize regional identity and an interest in how land, food, and communities are connected.

His path differs from that of his parents, but the underlying theme is familiar: a sustained curiosity about people and the places they inhabit.

Sarah Sousa’s Textile Art and Handmade Practice

Poetry is only one part of Sousa’s creative life. Her textile practice gives physical form to many of the ideas found in her writing.

She works with wool, flax, linen, grasses, bark, roots, botanicals, vines, and other materials. Her techniques include spinning, weaving, dyeing, stitching, patchwork, crochet, lucet braiding, basketry, wool studies, and cyanotype.

Her approach is both traditional and experimental. Basic weave structures provide a foundation, but she often incorporates materials that are gathered from the surrounding environment.

One example is her use of plant material directly within woven pieces. Flax thread can become a warp while mugwort, hydrangea, oregano, grasses, bark, or roots become part of the finished structure. The result can resemble a botanical specimen translated into cloth.

Her experimental basketry also incorporates invasive vines. Rather than treating these plants simply as unwanted growth, she can transform them into vessels and other objects. The landscape becomes both material and subject.

Cyanotype and Visual Layering

Cyanotype is another technique that has become part of Sousa’s artistic exploration. The photographic process uses light-sensitive chemicals to create the characteristic deep blue images associated with traditional cyanotype work.

Sousa applies the process to fabric and paper, including found materials and pages. She has explored the use of photographs, text, and collagraphic elements, allowing images and words to overlap.

This process fits naturally with her broader interest in layers. A piece of fabric can carry the memory of a plant. A poem can preserve the voice of someone who lived generations earlier. A historical photograph can sit beside contemporary marks. In Sousa’s work, the surface becomes a kind of archive.

Her interest in textile traditions also connects her to artists who explore slow, material-intensive processes. Spinning a fiber, weaving a structure, harvesting a plant, or preparing a natural dye can take time. That slowness contrasts sharply with the speed of contemporary digital culture.

A Family Connected by Different Forms of Creativity

Sousa and LaMontagne are known for their diverse artistic activities.

Sarah Sousa predominantly uses poetry, visual art, textiles, historical research, and material experimentation. Ray LaMontagne writes, sings, records, and performs. Tobias LaMontagne uses cinema, editing, photography, and animation to create a visual language. Sebastian LaMontagne is interested in culture, communication, nonprofits, land preservation, and local food systems.

Their paths are varied, yet they share a rare affinity to storytelling and place.

This piece was influenced by the family’s rural Massachusetts years. The farm was a hub for art and life. The same environment could have gardens, barns, ancient structures, animals, literature, instruments, fabrics, and natural materials.

Selected Timeline of Sarah A. Sousa and Her Family

FAQ

Who is Sarah A. Sousa?

Sarah A. Sousa is an American poet, visual artist, and textile artist from Massachusetts. She is also the wife of singer-songwriter Ray LaMontagne. Her work includes poetry collections, visual poetry, historical projects, weaving, spinning, cyanotype, basketry, and other textile practices.

When was Sarah A. Sousa born?

Sarah A. Sousa was born on November 9, 1972, in Lowell, Massachusetts, and grew up in nearby Dracut.

What books has Sarah Sousa written?

Her major poetry collections include Church of Needles, Split the Crow, and See the Wolf. She has also published chapbooks including Yell and Hex. Another notable project is The Diary of Esther Small, 1886, which combines historical material with literary and contextual work.

Who is Sarah Sousa’s husband?

Sarah Sousa is married to Ray LaMontagne, a Grammy-winning American singer-songwriter. The two have known each other since childhood and have built a private family life together.

How many children do Sarah Sousa and Ray LaMontagne have?

They have two sons, Tobias LaMontagne and Sebastian LaMontagne.

What does Tobias LaMontagne do?

Tobias LaMontagne is a filmmaker and visual artist who has worked in directing, editing, color, photography, and stop-motion. He has also collaborated with his father on music videos and other visual projects.

What does Sebastian LaMontagne do?

Sebastian LaMontagne has worked in development and communications and has pursued interests involving land preservation, local food systems, culture, and nonprofit work. He studied Society, Culture, and Thought at Bennington College.

What kind of textile art does Sarah Sousa create?

Sousa works with spinning, weaving, dyeing, stitching, patchwork, crochet, lucet braiding, basketry, wool, cyanotype, and other experimental textile methods. She frequently incorporates natural and foraged materials such as grasses, bark, roots, botanicals, vines, wool, flax, and linen.

Why is place important in Sarah Sousa’s work?

Place is central to Sousa’s creative practice because she connects landscape with memory, identity, history, and material culture. Her years in rural New England influenced both her poetry and her textile work, particularly her use of plants and other materials gathered from the environment.

What happened to the family’s Ashfield farm?

Sousa and Ray LaMontagne owned and restored a large historic farm in Ashfield, Massachusetts, for many years. They listed the property for approximately $5.25 million in 2023 and sold it for $4.5 million later that year. Afterward, they began looking for a new property in New England.

Is Sarah A. Sousa active on social media?

Sousa maintains a relatively low public profile. Her public presence is centered more on her literary and artistic work than on frequent personal social media activity, which fits the family’s longstanding preference for privacy.