What is this?

This is my attempt to digitally document a small piece of my creative process as I begin ‘The Second Project’. Observing. Walking. Writing. Reading. Something else. It’s all a rich tapestry.

What is the second project? I’m about the find out.

But I might also get bored documenting this… seems like a lot of extra work.

Here are places you can read a selection of my work that are available online:

The Dolphin (Short Story)

https://overland.org.au/previous-issues/issue-207/fiction-sarah-schmidt/

Essay

https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/in-the-shocking-suburban-silence-a-local-library-changed-everything-20190816-p52hua.html

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/sep/18/i-was-afraid-of-failing-until-i-started-doing-it-in-front-of-an-audience-night-after-night?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

https://crimereads.com/the-night-i-spent-in-lizzie-bordens-house/

SEE WHAT I HAVE DONE (2017)

See What I Have Done, published by Hachette (ANZ), Tinder Press (UK), Grove Atlantic (US), Piper Verlag (German), Editions Payot & Rivages (French), Hollands Diep (Dutch), Edizioni Piemme (Italian), GW Foksal (Polish), Palto Publishing (Turkish), MunhakDongne (Korean)

Awards and Some Praise

WINNER OF THE ABIA LITERARY FICTION OF THE YEAR 2018

WINNER OF THE MUD LITERARY AWARD 2018

Longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2018

Shortlisted for the Indie Book Award for Debut Fiction 2018

Shortlisted for the Strand Critics Awards for Best First Novel

Longlisted for the ABIA Matt Richell Award for New Writers 2018

Longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award 2019

For the originality of its voice and the power of its language and imagery, See What I Have Done deserves to be considered a Gothic classic – THE SATURDAY PAPER

See What I Have Done is a meticulously researched and boldly imagined book that crackles with tension throughout. Schmidt’s portrayal of Lizzie is haunting and complex, a deeply psychological portrait that forces the reader to question their preconceptions about what women are capable of – for better and worse. Both disturbing and gripping, it is an outstanding debut novel about love, death and the lifelong repercussions of unresolved grief. – The Observer

Schmidt is a consummate storyteller whose account of the Borden murders is utterly compelling. – Australian Book Review

Schmidt’s writing is rich and confident, painting a vivid portrait of a household with something rotten at its core. It’s a strong debut that promises much from an original and compelling new voice in Australian literature. – The Guardian

There are books about murder and there are books about imploding families; this is the rare novel that seamlessly weaves the two together, asking as many questions as it answers. – Kirkus Reviews

[An] unforgettable debut … Equally compelling as a whodunit, ‘whydunit,’ and historical novel. – Publishers Weekly

Heralds the arrival of a major new talent … Nail-biting horror mixes with a quiet, unforgettable power to create a novel readers will stay up all night finishing. – Booklist

This novel is like a crazy murdery fever dream, swirling around the day of the murders. Schmidt has written not just a tale of a crime, but a novel of the senses. There is hardly a sentence that goes by without mention of some sensation, whether it’s a smell or a sound or a taste, and it is this complete saturation of the senses that enables the novel to soak into your brain and envelope you in creepy uncomfortableness. It’s a fabulous, unsettling book. —Book Riot

Eerie and compelling, Sarah Schmidt breathes such life into the terrible, twisted tale of Lizzie Borden and her family, she makes it impossible to look away. —Paula Hawkins, author of The Girl on the Train