Sara Zarr is the acclaimed author of eight novels for young adults, including a collaborative novel with Tara Altebrando. Her most recent work is Goodbye from Nowhere published by HarperCollins/Balzer+Bray in April 2020. She's a National Book Award finalist and two-time Utah Book Award winner. Her books have been variously named to annual best books lists of the American Library Association, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal, the Guardian, the International Reading Association, the New York Public Library, and Los Angeles Public Library, and have been translated into many languages. In 2010, she served as a judge for the National Book Award. In the academic year 2020-2021, she will join the faculty of the Seattle Pacific University Low-Residency Creative Writing MFA program. Sara has written essays, creative nonfiction, and short fiction for Image, Hunger Mountain online, Response, Gather, and Relief Journal as well as for several anthologies, and has been a regular contributor to Image's daily Good Letters blog on faith, life, and culture. Sara also hosts and produces the This Creative Life podcast (2012-2015; 2020-). In fall 2014, she received a MacDowell Colony Fellowship. Her first book, Story of a Girl, was made into a 2017 television movie directed by Kyra Sedgwick. She divides her time between Utah and California.
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Reviews
"This inspirational and powerful work affirms readers with the underlying message: Fear not! Inspiring and honest, this smart book offers both compassion and practical instruction." --Kirkus Reviews "A good title to have in school or public library collections to inspire young creatives, especially young writers." --School Library Journal "Oh, that sly Sara Zarr! Courageous Creativity not only unlocks pathways within and around us; it grants permission to fearlessly imagine, try, fail, and re-imagine whatever we approach in everyday life. Invaluable!" --Rita Williams-Garcia, three-time Coretta Scott King Author Award Winner; Newbery Honor Winner Tools, not rules! Sara Zarr dives deep into the typical artist's insecurity-laced psyche to help readers turn their fears into successes. This book is the best gift you can give any writer or other creative person -- to validate, inspire, encourage, instruct, and empower. Even twenty-five books into my career, I'm so grateful to have read it now. --Lisa McMann, New York Times Bestselling author of The Unwanteds series and the Wake trilogy. Sara Zarr makes an inspiring case that creativity is our birthright, and yet it takes courage to express it. Step by step, she shows us how to drop our fears and self-judgments and reclaim what's ours. This wonderful, highly readable, and deeply personal book feels like a warm conversation with an insightful and encouraging friend. --Maryrose Wood, author of Alice's Farm: A Rabbit's Tale ; founder of Path of the Storyteller, training for writers. "I wish I had this book when I first started putting stories down on paper when I was a kid. Maybe it would've felt less scary. Maybe I would've felt less alone." --Gene Luen Yang, National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, 2016-2017; Printz Award Winner