{{short description|New Zealand author and cartoonist}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2017}} {{Infobox writer | name = Sarah Laing | embed = | honorific_prefix = | honorific_suffix = | image = Sarah_Laing_with_an_i.jpg | alt = | caption = Laing at the National Library of New Zealand in 2019 | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1973}} | birth_place = Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = | resting_place = | occupation = | language = English | nationality = American<br>New Zealander | alma_mater = | genre = Cartoons, illustration, poetry, fiction | notableworks = ''Three Words: An Anthology of Aotearoa/NZ Women's Comics'', ''Mansfield and Me: a Graphic Memoir'' | awards = | website = [https://sarahelaing.com Blog, Let Me Be Frank] }}
'''Sarah Laing''' (born 1973) is a New Zealand author, graphic novelist and graphic designer.
== Background == Laing was born in 1973 in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, United States and grew up in Palmerston North, New Zealand. As a teenager she moved to Wellington and has also lived in Germany, New York, and Auckland. She is currently based in Wellington.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://www.bookcouncil.org.nz/writer/laing-sarah/|title=Sarah Laing|website=New Zealand Book Council|access-date=1 December 2017}}</ref>
== Career == thumb|Self-portrait, 2018 Laing has a background in graphic design and worked as an illustrator.<ref name=":0" /> She completed a master's degree at Unitec in 2016.<ref>{{cite thesis |last=Laing |first=Sarah |year=2016 |type=Masters thesis |title=Mansfield and me : intertexuality and the autobiographical impulse in the graphic novel : an exegesis |publisher=ResearchBank, Unitec Institute of Technology |hdl=10652/3392 |url=https://www.researchbank.ac.nz/handle/10652/3392}}</ref> She illustrated ''Macaroni Moon'', a children's poetry book by Paula Green.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Macaroni Moon|last=Laing|first=Sarah|publisher=Random House|year=2009|isbn=9781869791513}}</ref>
In 2007, she published her first collection of short stories, ''Coming up Roses''.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Coming up Roses|last=Laing|first=Sarah|publisher=Random House|year=2007|isbn=9781869419202}}</ref> Her first novel, ''Dead People’s Music'', was published in 2009.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Dead People's Music|last=Laing|first=Sarah|publisher=Random House|year=2009|isbn=9781869791087}}</ref><ref name=":1" /> She is also the author of the short story ebook ''Inside a Pomegranate.''<ref name=":0" />
Following her time at the Sargeson Centre, she wrote and illustrated her second novel, ''The Fall of Light''.<ref name=":0" />
In 2016, she published the memoir ''Mansfield and Me: a Graphic Memoir'' (Victoria University Press), using the life and work of Katherine Mansfield to reflect on her own experiences; it was described as "part biography of Katherine Mansfield, part autobiography, and part account of her nagging insecurity about her own abilities."<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite news|url=https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=12171722|title=Kiwi cartoonists on what mattered in 2018|last=Bruce|first=Greg|date=2018-12-14|work=New Zealand Herald|access-date=2019-03-23|language=en-NZ|issn=1170-0777}}</ref> The Times Literary Supplement said of the UK edition (Lightning Books): "Her watercolour-washed drawings delight us."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/private/inside-out-2/|title = Inside out - Autobiography}}</ref>
With Rae Joyce and Indira Neville, Laing was the co-editor of ''Three Words: An Anthology of Aotearoa/NZ Women's Comics'', published in 2016.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://threeword3.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/three-words-introduction.html|title=Three Words: an introduction|website=Three Words|date=18 September 2014|access-date=1 December 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Three Words: An Anthology of Aotearoa/NZ Women's Comics|last1=Joyce|first1=Rae|last2=Laing|first2=Sarah|last3=Neville|first3=Indira|publisher=Beatnik|year=2016|isbn=9780994120502}}</ref>
In 2019, she published ''Let Me Be Frank'' (Victoria University Press), an anthology of her comics dating back to 2010, in which she documented the breakdown of her marriage.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://thespinoff.co.nz/books/09-10-2019/let-me-be-frank-an-essay-about-creativity-and-comics-by-sarah-laing/|title=Let Me Be Frank: an essay about creativity and comics by Sarah Laing|last=Laing|first=Sarah|date=2019-10-09|website=The Spinoff|access-date=2019-10-28}}</ref> Again, a UK edition was published by Lightning Books.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://eye-books.com/books/let-me-be-frank|title=Let Me Be Frank by Sarah Laing {{!}} Eye Books|website=eye-books.com|access-date=2019-10-28}}</ref>
== Awards ==
In 2006, Laing won the 2006 ''Sunday Star-Times'' Short Story Competition.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/books/83553837/top-new-zealand-novelist-sarah-laing-says-winning-sunday-startimes-short-story-awards-was-pivotal|title=Top New Zealand novelist Sarah Laing says winning Sunday Star-Times Short Story Awards was 'pivotal'|website=Stuff|date=25 August 2016|access-date=1 December 2017}}</ref>
Laing was a writer-in-residence at the Michael King Writers Centre in 2008 and 2013.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.writerscentre.org.nz/writers_in_residence.php?bio_id=86|title=Sarah Laing|website=Writers in Residence|access-date=1 December 2017}}</ref> With Sonja Yelich she received the 2010 Grimshaw Sargeson Fellowship.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.grimshaw.co.nz/about-us/grimshaw-sargeson-fellowship/|title=Grimshaw Sargeson Fellowship|access-date=1 December 2017|language=en-US}}</ref>
''Mansfield and Me: a Graphic Memoir'' was long listed in the Illustrated non-fiction category of the 2017 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nzbookawards.nz/new-zealand-book-awards/2017-awards/longlist/|title=2017 Awards Longlist|website=New Zealand Book Awards Trust|access-date=1 December 2017}}</ref>
== Work ==
*''Coming Up Roses'' (short stories), 2007 *''Dead People's Music'', 2009 *''The Fall of Light'', Vintage, 2013, {{ISBN|9781775533030}} *''Mansfield and Me'', 2016 *''Three Words: an anthology of Aotearoa/New Zealand Women's Comics'', 2016 *''Let Me Be Frank'', 2019 *''Sylvia and the Birds: How the Bird Lady Saved Birds and How You Can, Too'', 2022
== References == {{reflist}}
== External links == * [https://sarahelaing.com Sarah Laing's blog, Let Me Be Frank]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Laing, Sarah}} Category:Living people Category:1973 births Category:American emigrants to New Zealand Category:New Zealand graphic novelists Category:New Zealand fiction writers Category:New Zealand women novelists Category:New Zealand comics artists Category:Artists from Wellington City Category:Writers from Wellington City Category:People from Champaign, Illinois Category:New Zealand women comics artists Category:Unitec Institute of Technology alumni Category:Novelists from Illinois Category:21st-century New Zealand novelists Category:21st-century New Zealand women writers Category:New Zealand women graphic designers