Sarah Crossan
Young Adult and Adult Writer
YA and Adult writer Sarah Crossan primarily writes in verse form and has published numerous verse novels including: The Weight of Water, Moonrise and Toffee. In 2016, Sarah won the CILIP Carnegie Medal as well as the YA Book Prize, the CBI Book of the Year award and the CLiPPA Poetry Award for her novel, One. Her novel Toffee recently won the 2020 KPMG Honour Award for Fiction. She recently released her first verse novel for adults entitled Here is the Beehive.
Full episode
In our conversation, Sarah speaks to us about how she got into writing, growing up going to the library and teaching in the States. She also tell us about writing in the verse form and about the need to give the time and space to write.
We hope you enjoy.
Some teacher reflection questions
Questions
Imagination and the Verse Novel | 02.00 - 18.00
Q. Sarah mentions techniques she’s used for teaching Shakespeare. What has been your experience of Shakespeare?
Q. Can you recall a ‘transformative’ moment when your viewpoint of something changed?
Q. Have you read any verse novels? What was your experience of them?
Q. Sarah suggests that poetry is used to explain the most important parts of our lives. Would you agree?
Finding your own space | 27.00 - 31.30
Q. Sarah talks about the importance of finding a space to do what you love. How do you find this space?
Q. How do you ‘fuel’ your own creativity?
Q. Sarah mentions the mantra ‘Why not me?’ as a way of encouraging our own creativity and talents. What can we learn about this message?
Note: This podcast might be particularly interesting to those engaged in teaching Junior Cycle English. Sarah's novel The Weight of Water is currently on the prescribed text list for 2nd/3rd year. Please find more information here: https://www.curriculumonline.ie/Junior-cycle/Junior-Cycle-Subjects/English/
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