Sarah P. Blanchard

In her fiction, Sarah P. Blanchard writes about conflicted people making difficult decisions in impossible situations, sometimes with good outcomes. She's especially drawn to flawed, compassionate characters who believe they must battle their demons alone, and complex antagonists who feel they have nothing to lose.

New England-born and raised, Sarah earned her B.A. in English literature from the University of Connecticut and an M.B.A. from Nichols College in Massachusetts. After moving to Hawaii in 2003, she taught English, writing, and business at the University of Hawaii-Hilo and Hawaii Community College. A move back to the mainland in 2010 brought her to Raleigh, NC, and then the western North Carolina mountains where she taught two semesters of fiction writing in UNC-Asheville's OLLI Program (College for Seniors).

Her poems and short stories have appeared in several publications, and she was a finalist for the 2021 Doris Betts Fiction Prize. Her short story collection PLAYING CHESS WITH BULLS was published in December 2023 and her debut novel DRAWN FROM LIFE was released in Spring 2024. She is also the author/co-author of three books on horse training.

She and her husband Rich split their time between North Carolina and Connecticut, where she enjoys gardening and riding the trails with her horse, Cody.