Sarah Whitney earned her first byline as a fifth grader when she won a children’s writing contest sponsored by the Hayner Public Library District in Alton, Ill. She still remembers the crisp smell of the $50 award check

She spent college in the newsroom of The Daily Eastern News, Eastern Illinois University’s student newspaper, as an editor.

Sarah seriously started writing fiction after she wrote a profile about Eastern’s 2005 faculty laureate, Dr. Fern Kory, a children’s and young adult literature professor. The interview sparked an on-going dialogue about YA fiction, During this time, Sarah’s YA fiction won two consecutive Louise Murray Awards for Children’s Literature. She graduated with a bachelor’s in journalism after a 14-day class in England.

Sarah most recently worked as a reporter for The Suburban Journals of St. Charles and Warren counties where she earned a bi-weekly paycheck, which despite being slightly larger, just didn’t smell as nice.

Currently, she works at an Illinois law firm in their marketing department and volunteers for the Missouri Writers Guild.

Contact her at sj.whitney26 <at> gmail <dot> com.