If you look in my sixth grade yearbook, next to my name it reads:

“Sara’s Future Job: Children’s Book Author!”

While I haven’t published a children’s book yet, I can say I am building a career as a versatile writer. I am a creative nonfiction writer, poet, editor, reviewer, essayist, and creative writing professor.

I have worked to become a writer who takes joy in the process, collaboration, and preservation of storytelling. I believe in the power of preserving family and personal narratives as well as in their ability to connect with audiences and build community.

Earning my undergraduate degree in English Literature and English Creative Writing, gave me a basis to see the generational impact of a narrative. Earning my Master of Fine Arts, allowed me to build on the practice of writing by learning from the books and authors I admired throughout my life. Interacting with these texts and the graduate community, showed me the type of literary citizen I wanted to become: one who is present not only on the page but in her family and community.

Throughout my writing journey, I have earned several writing awards including The Norris Church Mailer Award and a Region One Society Professional Journalism Award, among others.

At the end of the day, everything I write is an effort to make sixth grade Sara proud.