My name is Sarah Kokernot and I’m a fiction writer and essayist. (Secretly I’m also a poet.)
I write because I’ve been touched by the work of others and I hope to touch someone through mine. My work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Best American Short Stories, The New York Times, Tricycle, EPOCH, Michigan Quarterly Review, Crazyhorse, West Branch, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, and other publications.
I’m currently revising my first novel and working on a book of essays.
I grew up in Kentucky in a queer family the 80’s and 90’s. I found refuge in books, nature, chosen family, and the numinous. Like many artists, I’ve struggled to balance creating from a place that feels true to my lived (and often deeply weird) experience with the demands of the commercial market. After writing and publishing for fifteen years, I’ve learned that I value genuine connection and authenticity most of all.
I live my with my husband and our two children outside of Chicago. I work as a grant writing and nonprofit consultant at StoryStudio, where I also teach as an instructor.
In the past, I’ve worked as a bilingual (English/Spanish) elementary school teacher, as a nonprofit manager at 826, a nonprofit creative writing center for youth, and as a visiting professor of creative writing at Northwestern University. My professional background informs my work as a creative writing coach, manuscript consultant, and grant writer.
If you’re interested in working with me as a manuscript consultant or grant writer, reach out and let me know what your needs are. If we both think it’s a good fit, we can take it from there!
In addition to writing fiction, I write essays on dharma practice and lived experience.
I’ve been a Tibetan Buddhist practitioner for over twenty years. I like my dharma to honor tradition while also staying down-to-earth, open-minded, and in conversation with other belief systems.
I believe spirituality is a form of creative practice and creative practice a form of spirituality. Both can awaken us to a greater sense of clarity, wonder, freedom, connection, and unconditional love.
You can read more about the intersection of dharma practice, spiritual ecology, and writing as ritual in my newsletter, Your Wild and Radiant Mind.
Selected Interviews & Works
"Devotion Changes Your Perception,” an interview in Be Here Now with Emily Mohn-Slate
“How Does The Erotic Impact Your Spiritual Practice?” an interview on Redesigning The Dharma with Adrian Baker
“Failure Is Liberation,” an essay in Tricycle: The Buddhist Review
“Rare And Precious Antiques” a short story in EPOCH Magazine