Sara Marshall-Ball spent her formative years in Cambridge. She studied English and Creative Writing at the University of Derby before moving to Brighton in 2007. She worked as a proofreader of gravestones to support herself through her MA in Creative and Critical Writing at the University of Sussex, during which she wrote much of her debut novel Hush (Myriad, 2015). The novel was shortlisted for Myriad’s Writer’s Retreat Competition in 2012. Sara Marshall-Ball currently works as an insurance claims assessor.
Interviews and Features
Excerpt from Hush on Writers' Hub
‘Lily’s lectures were always crowded. Richard wasn’t sure whether she noticed him, sitting at the back of the room, shadowed by a sea of eager undergraduates. He hadn’t told her that he sometimes came to watch her, performing small miracles of revelation which might impact on ten people in the audience, or a hundred, or even, by osmosis, the whole world.’
Read an exclusive extract from Hush on the Writers’ Hub website.
Article for Shiny New Books
‘There is something very powerful about looking at an image where the subjects are looking straight out at you, almost as if they are trying to communicate something without being able to tell you what it is.’
Sara Marshall-Ball writes for Shiny New Books describing how her novel began here.
Article for Faber Academy: 'Why I Write'
‘It’s often said that writing is a form of escapism, and in some ways I don’t doubt that’s true — except that the only thing I’ve ever tried to escape is boredom. I write to escape to places, rather than escape from them…’
Sara Marshall-Ball explores the compulsion behind her writing on the Faber Academy blog.