Essayist. Poet. Founder and Publisher of Sarabande Books.

About Sarah

Sarah Gorham is a poet and essayist, most recently the forthcoming essay collection Funeral Playlist from Etruscan Press. She is the author of Alpine Apprentice (2017), which made the short list for 2018 PEN/Diamonstein Award in the Essay, and Study in Perfect (2014), selected by Bernard Cooper for the 2013 AWP Award in Creative Nonfiction. Gorham is also the author of four poetry collections— Bad Daughter (2011), The Cure (2003), The Tension Zone (1996), and Don’t Go Back to Sleep (1989). Other honors include grants and fellowships from the NEA, three state arts councils, and the Kentucky Foundation for Women.

  • “In Alpine Apprentice, Gorham writes with a deft authorial hand, blending the internal reflections of a bildungsroman novelist, the technical writing of a mountain geologist, and the outsider observations of a travelogue writer.”

    —Publishers Weekly, starred review

  • “Easily one of the best books I read this year was Sarah Gorham’s gorgeous, one-of-a-kind Study in Perfect.”

    —Katy Waldman, Slate

Coming Soon

Funeral Playlist

The essays in this unique collection explore a diverse range of songs, as well as the song of a mourning dove, and the nonchalance of a human hum.