Sarah Laing

Sarah Laing (born 1973) is a New Zealand author and cartoonist.

Sarah Laing
At the National Library of New Zealand, 2019
Born1973 (age 47–48)
Champaign-Urbana, USA
LanguageEnglish
NationalityNew Zealander
GenreCartoons, illustration, poetry, fiction
Notable worksThree Words: An Anthology of Aotearoa/NZ Women's Comics, Mansfield and Me: a Graphic Memoir
Website
Blog, Let Me Be Frank

Background

Laing was born in 1973 in Champaign-Urbana, USA and grew up in Palmerston North, New Zealand. As a teenager she moved to Wellington and has also lived in Germany, New York, and Auckland. She is currently based in Wellington.[1]

Career
Self-portrait, 2018

Laing has a background in graphic design and worked as an illustrator.[1] She illustrated Macaroni Moon, a children's poetry book by Paula Green.[2]

In 2007 she published her first collection of short stories, Coming up Roses.[3] Her first novel, Dead People’s Music, was published in 2009.[4][5] She is also the author of the short story ebook Inside a Pomegranate.[1]

Following her time at the Sargeson Centre, she wrote and illustrated her second novel, The Fall of Light.[1]

In 2016 she published the memoir Mansfield and Me: a Graphic Memoir (Victoria University Press), using the life and work of Katherine Mansfield to reflect on her own experiences; it was described as "part biography of Katherine Mansfield, part autobiography, and part account of her nagging insecurity about her own abilities."[1][5] The Times Literary Supplement said of the UK edition (Lightning Books): "Her watercolour-washed drawings delight us." [6]

With Rae Joyce and Indira Neville, Laing was the co-editor of Three Words: An Anthology of Aotearoa/NZ Women's Comics, published in 2016.[7][8]

In 2019 she published Let Me Be Frank (Victoria University Press), an anthology of her comics dating back to 2010, in which she documented the breakdown of her marriage.[9] Again, a UK edition was published by Lightning Books.[10]

Awards

In 2006, Laing won the 2006 Sunday Star-Times Short Story Competition.[11]

Laing was a writer in resident at the Michael King Writers Centre in 2008 and 2013.[12] With Sonja Yelich she received the 2010 Grimshaw Sargeson Fellowship.[13]

Mansfield and Me: a Graphic Memoir was long listed in the Illustrated non-fiction category of the 2017 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.[14]

Work
  • Coming Up Roses (short stories), 2007
  • Dead People's Music, 2009
  • The Fall of Light, Vintage, 2013, ISBN 9781775533030
  • Mansfield and Me, 2016
  • Three Words: an anthology of Aotearoa/New Zealand Women's Comics, 2016
  • Let Me Be Frank, 2019

References
  1. "Sarah Laing". New Zealand Book Council. Retrieved 1 December 2017.
  2. Laing, Sarah (2009). Macaroni Moon. Random House. ISBN 9781869791513.
  3. Laing, Sarah (2007). Coming up Roses. Random House. ISBN 9781869419202.
  4. Laing, Sarah (2009). Dead People's Music. Random House. ISBN 9781869791087.
  5. Bruce, Greg (14 December 2018). "Kiwi cartoonists on what mattered in 2018". New Zealand Herald. ISSN 1170-0777. Retrieved 23 March 2019.
  6. https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/private/inside-out-2/
  7. "Three Words: an introduction". Three Words. Retrieved 1 December 2017.
  8. Joyce, Rae; Laing, Sarah; Neville, Indira (2016). Three Words: An Anthology of Aotearoa/NZ Women's Comics. Beatnik. ISBN 9780994120502.
  9. Laing, Sarah (9 October 2019). "Let Me Be Frank: an essay about creativity and comics by Sarah Laing". The Spinoff. Retrieved 28 October 2019.
  10. "Let Me Be Frank by Sarah Laing | Eye Books". eye-books.com. Retrieved 28 October 2019.
  11. "Top New Zealand novelist Sarah Laing says winning Sunday Star-Times Short Story Awards was 'pivotal'". Stuff. Retrieved 1 December 2017.
  12. "Sarah Laing". Writers in Residence. Retrieved 1 December 2017.
  13. "Grimshaw Sargeson Fellowship". Grimshaw Sargeson Fellowship. Retrieved 1 December 2017.
  14. "2017 Awards Longlist". New Zealand Book Awards Trust. Retrieved 1 December 2017.
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