2008 News

OUT NOW: SIX-WORD MEMOIRS For the drastically abridged version of Ithaka, check out Sarah's contribution in Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure, edited by Larry Smith and Rachel Fershleiser and also featuring mini-memoirs by Richard Ford, Jonathan Lethem, Amy Sedaris, and others. Out February 5 from Harper Perennial and on sale here.
"Will thrill minimalists and inspire maximalists." —Vanity Fair

IMMINENT: CRAZY GOOD A new book by Charles Leerhsen (Sarah's husband), Crazy Good: The True Story of Dan Patch, the Most Famous Horse in America, is being published by Simon & Schuster on June 3. Dan Patch, a harness horse at the turn of the 20th century, was the biggest pop culture icon, human or animal, of his day—more Americans knew who he was than who the President was; crowds exceeding 100,000 turned out to see him race against the clock; he earned over $1 million a year when the highest-paid baseball player, the Detroit Tigers' Ty Cobb, was making $12,000. Check back for news and event information, and pre-order here.

UPCOMING: ANTHOLOGY ESSAY Sarah has completed an essay for an anthology about parent loss, being edited by Barbara Lazear Ascher (Isn't It Romantic, Landscape Without Gravity), which will also feature pieces by Amy Bloom, David Gates, Rick Moody, and others.

TEACHING: IOWA Sarah has been invited to teach at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival in July. Memoir: The Vertical Pronoun and the Who Cares? Question happens July 13-18, and Narrative Journalism: The Art of the Profile July 19-20. Other teachers include John Dalton (Heaven Lake), Hope Edelman (Motherless Daughters), and BK Loren (The Way of the River).

IN PROGRESS: Sarah is working on a collection of portraits and profiles of folks touched by adoption—adoptees, birth parents, and adoptive parents—including Rosie O'Donnell, Olympic gold medalist diver Greg Louganis, and others, titled We Are Family.