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. Her reporting earned her a first-place, feature-writing award in the 2008 Society for Collegiate Journalists national competition for the article “We are EIU because of Lou,” a profile about Eastern’s president. She also won a 2005 intern scholarship from The Press Club of Metropolitan St. Louis for her internship at The Alton Telegraph. A 2006 copy-editing internship at The Naperville Sun-Times instilled in her a profound respect for all copy editors because she’s not one, despite the positive opinions of her friends and family who e-mail her their college papers to edit.
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, which spanned the next two years. During this time, Sarah’s YA fiction won two consecutive Louise Murray Awards for Children’s Literature. The contest judge compared her first winning story “A Man and His Cat” to work by authors Terry Pratchett and Philip Pullman. She graduated cum laude in 2007 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 is a freelance writer during her free time.
Contact her at sj.whitney26 <at> gmail <dot> com.
Hi, Sarah! I stumbled across your blog while I was looking up another email to include in a marketing plan. Looks like we have some mutual writer friends (Saturday Writers). I teach in the MFA in writing program at Lindenwood, among other things. I’ve also freelanced a little and co-authored 4 books.
That’s more about me than you wanted to know, I’m sure…just wanted to introduce myself. Have a great day!
Dear Sarah:
I was given your URL by someone who thought it might be useful to me. I am interested in writing a children’s book.
Hello Sarah, I met you so long ago at Kisker Road Library at a “Meet the Authors” event. It was set up speed date style. I am an aspiring writer. I wanted to know if you still had your article around about the absent parent in YA writings? I would love to read that. Thanks!
Shirley S.