{{Short description|American nonfiction writer (born 1980)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=November 2020}} {{Infobox writer | name = Sarah Smarsh | image = Sarah Smarsh 2024 Texas Book Festival.jpg | caption = Smarsh at the 2024 Texas Book Festival. | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1980|8|8}} | birth_place = Kingman, Kansas, U.S.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Hoedel|first=Cindy |title=IN Conversation with Sarah Smarsh |date=September 1, 2019|newspaper=IN Kansas City Magazine|url=https://www.inkansascity.com/innovators-influencers/people/in-conversation-with-sarah-smarsh/ |access-date=August 27, 2023}}</ref> | occupation = Writer | genre = Nonfiction | education = University of Kansas (BA)<br>Columbia University (MFA) }} '''Sarah Smarsh''' (born 8 August 1980) is an American journalist and nonfiction writer.
== Background == Smarsh was born in rural Kansas and grew up on farms and in small towns. Her family moved frequently, and she attended eight schools before she reached ninth grade.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Smarsh |first=Sarah |title=The working-class kid who became a writer: how a Kansas teacher helped change my life |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/sep/06/teachers-red-states-kansas-memoir-sarah-smarsh |access-date=October 27, 2019}}</ref> As a first generation college student,<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-03-07 |title=Alumni Spotlight: Sarah Smarsh '05 |url=https://arts.columbia.edu/news/alumni-spotlight-sarah-smarsh-05 |access-date=2024-10-27 |website=Columbia University School of the Arts}}</ref> she attended the University of Kansas starting in 1998, and received her MFA in nonfiction writing from Columbia University.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Keranen |first=Rachel |title=Review: Heartland by Sarah Smarsh |work=Columbia Journal |url=http://columbiajournal.org/review-heartland-by-sarah-smarsh/ |access-date=October 27, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Bierman |first=Courtney |title=Q&A with KU alumna author, journalist Sarah Smarsh |work=The University Daily Kansan |url=http://www.kansan.com/arts_and_culture/q-a-with-ku-alumna-author-journalist-sarah-smarsh/article_63eb8c8c-bd27-11e8-8d22-ab60f597b22c.html |access-date=October 27, 2019}}</ref>
While in fifth grade, Smarsh wrote a story about her family for a class assignment. Her teacher at the time sent the story to a national children's magazine, where it was then published. After the story was published, Smarsh told her family that she would one day publish a full book about them.<ref name=":0" />
She has been a fellow at the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy.<ref>{{Cite web |title=About Sarah Smarsh, Journalist and Author of Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth |url=https://sarahsmarsh.com/about |access-date=2022-03-05 |website=Sarah Smarsh |language=en-US}}</ref> She has written for publications including the ''Columbia Journalism Review'', ''The New York Times'', ''The Guardian'', and ''The New Yorker''.<ref>Sarah Smarsh author pages: * {{cite web |title=Sarah Smarsh |url=https://www.cjr.org/author/sarah-smarsh |work=Columbia Journalism Review |accessdate=October 27, 2019}} * {{cite web |title=Sarah Smarsh |url=https://www.theguardian.com/profile/sarah-smarsh |website=The Guardian |accessdate=October 24, 2020}} * {{cite magazine |title=Contributors – Sarah Smarsh |url=https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/sarah-smarsh |magazine=The New Yorker |accessdate=October 24, 2020}} </ref>
== Published works == Published in 2018, ''Heartland'' is an autobiographical work which focuses on the lives of her family members, white blue-collar people rooted in Kansas and the Great Plains; the book was a finalist for the National Book Award and the Kirkus Prize<ref>{{Cite news |last=Dawson |first=Mackenzie |title=How 'Heartland' author Sarah Smarsh became a hero in rural America |work=New York Post |url=https://nypost.com/2019/11/09/how-heartland-author-sarah-smarsh-became-a-hero-in-rural-america/ |access-date=October 24, 2020}}</ref> and a 2019 recipient of the Kansas Notable Book Award.<ref>{{Cite web |title=2019 Notable Books {{!}} Kansas State Library, KS - Official Website |url=https://kslib.info/1361/2019-Notable-Books |access-date=2022-08-12 |website=kslib.info}}</ref> ''She Come By It Natural'' (2020) is a collection of essays about Dolly Parton, provoked by stereotyped coverage of rural people in the context of the 2016 election.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Garcia-Navarro |first=Lulu |title=Author Sarah Smarsh Discusses Her New Book On 'The Great Unifier:' Dolly Parton |publisher=NPR |url=https://www.npr.org/2020/10/18/925069851/author-sarah-smarsh-discusses-her-new-book-on-the-great-unifier-dolly-parton |access-date=October 24, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Choate |first=Emily |title=She Come by It Natural Pays Unique Tribute to Dolly Parton |work=Nashville Scene |url=https://www.nashvillescene.com/arts-culture/books/article/21144055/she-come-by-it-natural-pays-unique-tribute-to-dolly-parton |access-date=October 24, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Dundas |first=Deborah |title=In 'She Come By It Natural,' an homage to Dolly Parton and how her music speaks to women |publisher=Toronto Star |url=https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2020/10/15/in-she-come-by-it-natural-an-homage-to-dolly-parton-and-how-her-music-speaks-to-women.html |access-date=October 24, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Berry |date=October 14, 2020 |first=Lorraine |title=Review: How Dolly Parton became an unsung icon of the feminist working class |work=Los Angeles Times |url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2020-10-14/dolly-parton-biography-sarah-smarsh-review |access-date=October 24, 2020}}</ref> The book was a finalist for the nonfiction category of the National Books Critics Circle Award.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-01-25 |title=Announcing the Finalists for the 2020 NBCC Awards |url=https://www.bookcritics.org/2021/01/24/announcing-the-finalists-for-the-2020-nbcc-awards/ |access-date=2022-03-05 |website=National Book Critics Circle |language=en-US}}</ref>
Published in 2024, ''Bone of the Bone'' is a collection of essays written by Smarsh between 2013 and 2024. Drawing on her background growing up on a Kansas wheat farm and her work as a journalist, the book addresses recurring themes in her career, including class stratification, political polarization, gender and labor, environmental precarity, media representation, and tensions between rural and urban life. The volume brings together more than thirty previously published pieces, combining personal reflection with cultural and political analysis, and situates Smarsh's long-standing focus on socioeconomic inequality within contemporary debates in the United States.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Bone-of-the-Bone/Sarah-Smarsh/9781668061848 |title=Bone of the Bone |date=2025-09-09 |isbn=978-1-6680-6184-8 |language=en}}</ref>
== Other works == In 2019, Smarsh started the podcast ''The Homecomers.'' The podcast spotlights and interviews people from rural and working class communities, similar to the ones that Smarsh herself grew up in, in order to dispel stereotypes about themselves and the places where they live.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Development |first=MESH Design & |title=RELEASE: Journalist and NYT Bestselling Author Sarah Smarsh to Release Original Podcast |url=https://www.thehomecomers.org/the-homecomers-press-release/ |access-date=2022-03-05 |website=The Homecomers |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2019-09-30 |title='The Homecomers': Writer Sarah Smarsh's New Podcast Explores Trend Of Rural Americans Returning Home |url=https://www.wvpublic.org/news/2019-09-30/the-homecomers-writer-sarah-smarshs-new-podcast-explores-trend-of-rural-americans-returning-home |access-date=2022-03-05 |website=WVPB |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Shaw |first=Iain |date=2019-10-07 |title=The Homecomers Corrects the Narrative on Rural America |url=https://podcastreview.org/review/the-homecomers/ |access-date=2022-07-21 |website=Podcast Review |language=en-US}}</ref>
== References == <!-- Inline citations added to your article will automatically display here. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:REFB for instructions on how to add citations. --> {{Reflist}}
==External links== {{commonscat|Sarah Smarsh}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Smarsh, Sarah}} Category:1980 births Category:Living people Category:21st-century American journalists Category:21st-century American women writers Category:University of Kansas alumni Category:Columbia University School of the Arts alumni Category:21st-century American essayists Category:21st-century American women journalists Category:American women essayists Category:Journalists from Kansas Category:Writers from Kansas Category:People from Kingman, Kansas