Sarah Butler

Sarah Butler is the author of three novels, all published by Picador. Her first, Ten Things I’ve Learnt About Love (published in fourteen languages in 2013), explores themes of home, loss and family through the stories of a homeless man and a young, rootless girl. Her second, Before the Fire (2015), tells the story of a young man from north Manchester caught up in the riots of 2011. Jack and Bet (2020) charts the lives and marriage of an octogenarian couple living in a rapidly changing part of South London. In November 2018, Sarah published a novella, Not Home, written in conversation with people living in unsupported temporary accommodation in Manchester.

Sarah is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University and has an MA (Cantab) in English Literature from Cambridge University, an MA in Creative Writing from University of East Anglia, an MSc in Urban Studies from University College London and a PhD in Creative Writing from the Open University.

Sarah established the literature and place consultancy, UrbanWords, in 2006, to explore the relationship between writing and place through participatory projects. Recent writing residencies include writer-in-residence on the Central line; at Great Ormond Street Hospital; and Stories from the Road — a project exploring personal stories of Oxford Road, Manchester.