Sarah Orman was born and raised in Austin, Texas. She has a master’s degree in Russian literature from the University of Wisconsin and a law degree from U.C. Hastings College of the Law. She has worked as a bookseller, a curriculum editor, an attorney for public schools, and an assistant literary agent. Sarah’s writing has been accepted for publication in literary magazines such as Narrative, Stonecrop, Atlanta Review and Witness. She is a member of the Writers’ League of Texas and an assistant editor for Narrative. She is also a co-author of the 10th edition of The Educators’ Guide to Texas School Law, a textbook used in administrator certification programs across the state of Texas. Sarah is working on a memoir.

Sarah has lived in Austin, Texas, for most of her life. But she is always having to explain to people in Austin that she is from here. Here’s why:

At age 18, Sarah moved 2,000 miles away from her hometown to Olympia, Washington, because she’d heard it was a cool place to go to college. (OK, there was a guy.) She attended The Evergreen State College, where she mostly studied Russian literature. After college, she thought she wanted to be a professor of Russian literature, but she only made it through two years of a Ph.D. program at the University of Wisconsin. She dropped out because, among other reasons, she dreaded the idea of teaching Crime and Punishment every year. (Now that doesn’t sound so bad. Funny how life works.)

In between college and grad school, Sarah had loved working as a book buyer and seller at Half-Price Books on Guadalupe St. in Austin. She decided to go to the place where books are born: New York City. (OK, there was a different guy.)

She got to New York in mid-August 2001, which might seem like terrible timing. But in October 2001, Sarah started working at 7th Avenue Community Bookstore in Park Slope, Brooklyn, where she witnessed the power of a local business to help repair a community after a tragedy. After many coffee dates with various people, Sarah decided she wanted to be a literary agent and got a job as an assistant to two agents at Sterling Lord Literistic. Sarah loved working at the literary agency, especially because she got to read so many interesting manuscripts in the slush pile. Alas, it is very hard to live in New York on an assistant literary agent’s salary. One day, Sarah realized that she enjoyed reading book contracts almost as much as reading manuscripts. She left New York to go to law school in San Francisco, and this time the guy followed her.

After representing public school districts in the Bay Area for two years, Sarah returned to Austin with Adam, who was now her husband, and their three-month old son. In 2011, Sarah passed the Texas Bar Exam and gave birth to a daughter. In 2016, Adam opened L’Oca d’Oro, named the #1 restaurant in Austin in 2022. Sarah and her family live in North Austin, a few miles from where she grew up.