Sarah Jones

Writer

Author: Sarah J.

  • UPDATE: I won the Paris Prize for Literature!

    UPDATE: I won the Paris Prize for Literature!

    I am thrilled to announce that in March this year I won first place in Farnham Literary Festival’s First Five Pages competition, and received the Paris Prize for Fiction.

    It has taken me some time to write this update because 2026 has so far been a crazy year. It’s (already, somehow, impossibly) August, but in the last several months I’ve moved jobs, moved house, and attended the wedding of someone very close to me. In the midst of all of that, I was invited to Farnham Literary Festival in March as a shortlisted writer in their novel-writing prize to hear the results.

    I went in not knowing if I had won anything – celebrating the achievement of being shortlisted. I had submitted the first five pages of my perpetual WIP in the hopes that some success in the competition might spur me on to finish the project. When the judges announced that I had won first place, I was honestly shocked. That’s an incredibly cliche thing to say, but I genuinely thought I had sussed out the winner during conversations with other shortlisters. I’m not wining any competitions for my powers of deduction.

    This prize means a great deal to me. It means that someone else has confidence in my abilities as a writer. Someone who isn’t my partner or my mum. Even more importantly to me, it means that someone has confidence in my idea, which is the thing I struggle with the most if I’m honest.

    So, thank you to the wonderful folk at the Farnham Literary Festival for awarding me the Paris Prize. There are four months left in 2026. Every time I look at my award on the shelf next to me, I remember how I want to spend them.

    Please visit farnhamliteraryfestival.co.uk to learn more about this wonderful celebration of writing.

  • New Short Story: The Banjax

    New Short Story: The Banjax

    This is a story of the little that’s left after the world has gone to shit. When anyone still alive is a wee bit dead already.

    The Banjax started in a MA Creative Writing workshop, and was refined with feedback from my friends in the Oxford Writing Circle. Particular thanks to my friend and fellow enjoyer-of-creepy-stories Sam Derby, who beta-read the piece for me.

    My story has been published alongside nine other incredible dark post-apocalyptic pieces in ‘After Tomorrow’ – the fourth edition of Dark Peninsula Press’s The Cellar Door Anthologies. Thank you to the editor, Aric Sundquist, for giving my piece a home. You can buy or download a copy on the Dark Peninsula Press website.

  • Review: The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow

    Review: The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow

    This was hands down one of the best books I read last year. The Once and Future Witches is a beautifully-written homage to rebellious women, and delivers a fresh take on classic folk stories.

    You can read the full text of my review on Breaking the Glass Slipper. BtGS is an epic, intelligent podcast that explores attitudes to women in genre fiction. Find out how to listen and subscribe here.

  • New Short Story: Hawthorn and Cherry Cola

    New Short Story: Hawthorn and Cherry Cola

    My short story, Hawthorn and Cherry Cola, has been published today by Fairlight Books as part of their series of shorts!

    Read it here.

    This particular story started life as an assignment on my Creative Writing MA at Oxford Brookes when we were challenged to write from the perspective of a secondary character in one of our stories. One of the tutors advised that we consider each character’s perspective on two fundamental pillars of modern society: sex and money. For this piece I went for sex, and the alien, repressed, electric, conflicting feelings that a religious sixteen year old doesn’t want her family knowing about.

    Take a minute to read my author profile on the Fairlight website as well. It’s only a tiny bit embarrassing and it will remind you that Bebo was once a thing.

  • Book Review: A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, George Saunders

    Book Review: A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, George Saunders

    A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life by George Saunders

    My rating: 5 of 5 stars

    ‘Does this feed energy to the heart of my story?’

    That was my key take-away from George Saunders’ practical guide to the writing, as illustrated through the work of four Russian Greats. I’ve been asking myself that question in every short story, every email, every text message I’ve written since. Too much of the time, the answer is no. But that’s OK, because George Saunders has unlocked my critical reading abilities like a double jump in a platformer game.

    ‘A Swim in a Pond in the Rain’ is your new handbook, not just to Tolstoy or Chekhov, but to all of literature. Saunders has prepared an engaging journey through the mind of these classic authors, and aims to hone his reader’s critical eye along the way. Each chapter introduces a different short story accompanied by a full and detailed critique from Saunders. If you are intimidated or bored by the idea of reading these stories – don’t be. Saunders will show you what there is to love about them in the least annoying way.

    Saunders is himself a charismatic and technically fluent author. Anyone who enjoyed his Booker Prize-winning ‘Lincoln in the Bardo’ will recognise his wit and enthusiasm for breaking literary conventions. With many years of experience teaching creative writing at Syracuse, he understands how to bring ‘the classics’ to life for his students. He doesn’t simply describe the genius of the story. He gets inside the author’s head and deconstructs each literary unit. He exposes the cogs and wheels of the text and gives his reader the words to describe exactly why each paragraph on the page works (or doesn’t – Saunders is a self-confessed megafan of these authors, but he can acknowledge when Turgenev is going on a bit). Saunders instills his student with an appreciation for the story, and then lets them in on the mystery of its creation.

    This is a practical and highly enjoyable read, particularly for any student of literature or creative writing, and will undoubtedly appear at the top of many reading lists to come. Now, I’m off to finally read War and Peace.


    View all my reviews on Goodreads