My surname is pronounced Ep-steen (rhymes with green).
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Sarah Epstein is an award-winning Australian author, illustrator and designer who grew up in suburban Sydney and now lives in Melbourne with her husband, two sons and a rescued dog called Luna. After achieving a design degree and enjoying a 25-year graphic design career, Sarah returned to her first loves of writing and illustrating. Her debut novel Small Spaces is a CBCA Honour Book, winner of the Davitt Award for Best YA Crime Novel, and was shortlisted for another seven awards including the NSW Premier's Literary Awards, the Queensland Literary Awards, the Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature, and the Australian Book Industry Awards. Her suspenseful new YA crime novel, Deep Water, will be released on 1 April 2020.
Sarah Epstein is an award-winning Australian author, illustrator and designer who grew up in suburban Sydney and spent her childhood drawing, daydreaming and cobbling together picture books at the kitchen table. By her teens she was also writing short stories and angsty poetry, and starting novels that never saw the light of day. After achieving a design degree at university, Sarah embarked on a career in graphic design. It was only after she'd had a baby that Sarah reconnected with her desire to write children's books, and it took nearly five years' worth of naptimes to complete her first manuscript. Thankfully these days she writes much faster, and when she's not busy drafting novels you can find her designing, illustrating, crafting, and occasionally sleeping in Melbourne where she lives with her husband, two sons and rescued dog called Luna. Her debut novel Small Spaces is a CBCA Honour Book, winner of the Davitt Award for Best YA Crime Novel, and was shortlisted for another seven awards including the NSW Premier's Literary Awards, the Queensland Literary Awards, the Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature, and the Australian Book Industry Awards. Her suspenseful new YA crime novel, Deep Water, will be released on 1 April 2020.
Sarah Epstein is an award-winning Australian author, illustrator and designer who grew up in suburban Sydney with a scorching case of middle child syndrome and an imagination that spilled out onto anything that wasn't nailed down. She was that girl constantly scribbling and doodling, and dreaming up characters and what kind of torture she could put them through.
As a teen Sarah devoured everything from Sweet Valley High to Stephen King novels, and hid away in her bedroom for hours at a time penning her own stories. But, being the hopeless perfectionist she is, she often reread her stories a week after writing them and tore the handwritten pages to shreds because she thought they weren't good enough. She really wishes she still had those stories to enjoy (and cringe at) today!
Sarah dearly wanted to be a writer but wasn't interested in studying journalism (the only university writing courses offered at the time), so she followed her other passion of drawing. She achieved a design degree before embarking on a career in graphic design. It wasn't until Sarah had her first baby that she reconnected with her desire to write children's books, and she started by kicking around some picture book texts. But then a mysterious story began unfolding in her mind led by a teenage protagonist, and Sarah found herself curled in an armchair scribbling chapters in a notebook while her son was napping. Ever since then she's been writing, reading, loving and recommending YA, especially #LoveOzYA.
When Sarah's not writing she enjoys illustrating, painting and crafting, because she gets twitchy if she's not creating. You can see some of her illustration work over at Sarah Epstein Creative.
Sarah lives not too far from the beach in Melbourne with her husband, two sons and a rescued dog called Luna. Her debut novel Small Spaces is a CBCA Honour Book, winner of the Davitt Award for Best YA Crime Novel, and was shortlisted for another seven awards including the NSW Premier's Literary Awards, the Queensland Literary Awards, the Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature, and the Australian Book Industry Awards. Her suspenseful new YA crime novel, Deep Water, will be released on 1 April 2020.
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