Sarah Hills
Sarah Hills was brought up in the south of England but migrated north as an adult and found herself living in Leeds.
Sarah’s short stories have been published in several online literary magazines and print anthologies, including Cafelit, Toasted Cheese and Lucent Dreaming. She has also been shortlisted in competitions including the Bridport short story and Lucent Dreaming’s flash and short story.
Sarah wrote poetry from an early age but only started taking her writing seriously a few years ago when a creative writing class opened doors in her head she had not known were there.
Q: If you could travel back in time, which of the great writers would you like to meet and why?
A: Jane Austin – for the acuteness of her observation and the way she translated women’s experience into literature and showed them as intelligent people in their own right.
Q: Do you have a favourite quote? (From a book, film, song, speech…)
A: These come and go but, currently, my favourite is from Richard Osman (Guardian interview, 9 September 2023): ‘I know what failure tastes like. I also know it’s what you do next that matters. Always.’
Q: Is there a book that you keep going back to, and if so, how many times have you read it?
A: As a child – Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, which I’ve read so many times I have lost count. No, the films are not the same.
As an adult – For prose, I read and re-read Terry Pratchett Discworld books, my go-to comfort read. For poetry, not one book; T.S Eliot’s Collected Poems with The love song of J. Alfred Prufrock and The Wasteland, Seamus Heaney’s 100 poems and Petra Hilger’s The heart neither red nor sweet.
Q: What superpower would you like to have and why?
A: I would like to be able to pause time! When I am writing I lose track of time and find it difficult to break off. If I could pause and come back to about an hour after I started that would be more convenient for the rest of my life.
