She moved to the Twin Cities in 1986, where she has worked in the literary community as a columnist, editor, and freelance writer.
Most recently Sarah has begun adapting her novels to television series and feature length scripts.
"My settings tend to be the towns in the rural north where industry (mining) and recreation (the BWCAW) compete.
2002: Shortlisted for Grand Prix Lectrices d’Elle for French translation of These Granite Islands 2000: Minnesota State Arts Board Fellowship 1999: Loft McKnight Fellowship for Fiction These Granite Islands (2001, Little Brown & Co. 2015, University of Minnesota Press) The Ice Chorus (2003, Little, Brown & Co.; re-released 2009, Alma Books UK) Shelter (2011, Borealis Books.
(2020 University of Minnesota Press - originally published under pen name Ava Finch in 2015) Reviewing Vacationland, Kirkus Reviews said: "Each chapter renders a story complete, and the stories together weave a deeply mined narrative of place and people, elegiac yet life-affirming.