Journalist and author of Heartland

Journalist and
author of Heartland

Journalist and
author of Heartland

Heartland

A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth

Finalist for the National Book Award, Kirkus Prize and more
Recommended by President Barack Obama, Melinda Gates, Sarah Jessica Parker and literary critics around the world

Sarah Smarsh was born a fifth-generation Kansas farm girl, the child of a carpenter and a teen mom. Through intimate family stories and deeply researched cultural analysis, Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth reveals today’s socioeconomic divide. Read more…

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Section 1

“A deeply humane memoir that crackles with clarifying insight.”

–The New York Times Book Review

Section 2

“An unsentimental tribute to the working-class people Smarsh knows—the farmers, office clerks, trash collectors, waitresses—whose labor is often invisible or disdained.”

–Fresh Air, NPR

Section

“This is the nation’s class divide brought into sharp relief through personal history… Heartland is a thoughtful, bighearted tale.”

–The Washington Post

She Come By It Natural

Dolly Parton and the Women
Who Lived Her Songs

Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award
Named a must-read book of 2020 by Time Magazine
Read the New York Times interview
Read the Los Angeles Times review
Read an excerpt at Slate

The National Book Award finalist and New York Times bestselling author of Heartland focuses her laser-sharp insights on a working-class icon and one of the most unifying figures in American culture: Dolly Parton. Read more…

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Rural ain’t what you think it is. Sarah Smarsh’s new podcast The Homecomers brings you intimate conversations with people fighting for the rural and working-class communities they love.

LISTEN TO THE TRAILER:

Subscribe on iTunes, listen on Spotify, or search for The Homecomers wherever you get your podcasts.

Sarah speaks at live and virtual events.

FIND SARAH ONLINE