Sarah grew up on Long Island and went to college in Waterville, Maine, where she published her first story, "Sick People". She got her MFA in creative writing from Columbia University, and currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband and daughters.
Her influences include Russell Banks, Ray Bradbury, Philip K. Dick, Shirley Jackson, Stephen King, Kelly Link, Somerset Maugham, Lorrie Moore, Joyce Carol Oates, Peter Straub, Eudora Welty, the films of Ingmar Bergman and Will Ferrell, all media relating to Rodney Dangerfield, the movie The Jerk, and the band The Eels.
In addition to writing novels, she also received her Master's in Environmental Health Science/Toxicology from New York University.
Lorraine the wonder rabbit.
She has some moral objections to The Missing.
Sarah, as painted by her father, Peter Langan
JT Petty,
self-portrait. It does not do him justice.