🎙 INTERVIEW: Crafting Powerful Prose w/ Sarah Hall
** This is a LIVE interview with author Sarah Hall about the craft of writing and reality of building a writing career. Attendees will be sent a recording after the interview. **
What makes a reader fall in love with a book on the sentence level? How does an acclaimed author ideate, construct and edit award-winning short stories?
Twice nominated for the Booker Prize and celebrated as one of Britain’s finest short story writers, Sarah Hall is known for prose that is lush, visceral, and uncompromising. From the elemental Cumbrian landscapes of Haweswater to the dark intimacy of Burntcoat and the mythic, wind-whipped force of her forthcoming novel Helm, her work pulses with setting, society, sensuality, and a deep understanding of form.
Join us for a conversation with Sarah as we explore how she crafts fiction that’s both intensely embodied and intellectually rich, across both the novel and short story form.
We’ll explore:
How to write compelling, believable settings
The role of animals, landscape, and folklore in her fiction
What makes a sex scene work on the page
Her approach to titles (and why she keeps a document just for them)
How short stories sharpen form and psychological tension
What she’s learned about strong endings and when to leave a story
How Helm came to life, and the power of writing climate, myth, and place
About Sarah Hall
Sarah Hall is one of the UK’s most talented authors. Twice nominated for Man-Booker Prize, the first and only writer to win the BBC National Short Story Award twice, she has written 10 highly acclaimed novels and short story collections.
Your London Writers' Salon Hosts:
Parul Bavishi and Matt Trinetti are the co-founders of the London Writers' Salon, creators of the webby-nominated Writers' Hour daily writing sessions, and hosts of the London Writers' Salon podcast.
Parul Bavishi has been an editor for over a decade. In addition to running LWS she helps thriller, YA and non-fiction writers level up their craft and get published. She writes and edits for the Story Grid. She has worked as an editor and literary scout at Random House, Quercus & Eccles Fisher. She analyses TV hit shows (Killing Eve, Ozark, Game of Thrones) on the Story Grid Showrunners Podcast.
Matt Trinetti is a writer, publisher, TEDx speaker, and facilitator. In addition to running LWS, Matt designs programs to help unfulfilled professionals pursue creative work, start businesses, and reinvent their careers. Matt's work has appeared in Quartz, Observer, Creative Mornings, and on his blog GiveLiveExplore.
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