Sara Rath

Author

Sara was born in Manawa, Wisconsin, where she graduated from Little Wolf High School. She earned an undergraduate degree in English from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an MFA in Writing from Vermont College.

Sara Lindsay Rath is a versatile author of award-winning work in a wide variety of genres. Her twelfth book, Night Sisters, is narrated by a Madison woman whose flirtation with Spi­ritualism results in an encounter with a mischievous spirit and eerie reflections upon the unresolved death of a childhood friend. Much of this novel, published by Terrace Books of University of Wisconsin Press, takes place at the fictional "Wocanaga," which closely resembles the Wonewoc Spiritual Camp in western Wisconsin. Jill Gerard, editor of Chautauqua Literary Journal says: “Mysterious, compelling, and altogether human, Night Sisters explores the meaning of love, friendship and belief. Open the book and journey with Nellie Grendon to Wocanaga—discover the power of the past and test the boundaries of belief. Sara Rath creates a world that might seem easy to dismiss— but like Nellie's friends Polly and George, the readers will find themselves caught in the rich web of story. Dare to accept the invitation: May I come to you?”

Star Lake Saloon & Housekeeping Cottages, Sara's first novel, was published in August 2005 by Terrace Books of University of Wisconsin Press. This account of Hannah Swann, a woman forced to take a midlife detour to save a run-down fishing resort from an international mining corporation in the northwoods of Wisconsin was praised by Publisher's Weekly as "a diversion as pleasant as a quiet summer day at the lakeshore."

Sara is also the author of four collections of poems, including Remembering the Wilderness, awarded The Banta Award in 1984 by the Wisconsin Library Association.

The New York Times Book Review said The Complete Pig, published May, 2000 (paperback ed. 2004), "contains enough eccentric pig lore to leave the browser giddy with pleasure. And browsing is in order." The Los Angeles Times called it a "swine fest," and "eye-opening for those who think of the pig only as 'the other white meat.'" A companion book, The Complete Cow, 1998, was reviewed on NBC's TODAY and re-issued in paperback in May, 2003.

In 2003 Sara was named a Weston Cate Fellow by the Vermont Historical Society to research a biography of the passionate life and times of 19th century Vermont spiritualist, poet and activist, Achsa W. Sprague.  This is a project still in progress.

Sara has two children from a previous marriage, Jay Rath and Laura Rath Beausire, and lives in the rolling countryside of the Wisconsin River valley near Spring Green with husband Del Lamont; their chocolate lab Sadie; Nellie, a calico Maine Coon; and the latest addition -- Miss Daisy, a Ragdoll kitten.