Fiction

Short Stories
“Reading the Cards” appears in the 2021 Winter Solstice issue of “The Sacral and the Sacred,” vol. 2, published by The Limit Experience Journal. Read it online at https://www.limitexperience.com/e16blanchardsarah

“Playing Chess with Bulls” earned third place in Sixfold‘s writer-voted Winter 2021 fiction issue. It’s available to read online for free at: http://www.sixfold.org/FicWinter21/Blanchard.html. This story was also one of five finalists for the 2022 Doris Betts fiction award, sponsored by the North Carolina Writers’ Network; and chosen as a semi-finalist in Button Eye Review‘s 2021 summer fiction contest.

“Fathering” was a winner in the Two Sisters Writing and Publishing 2020 fiction contest. This story appears on the website twosisterswriting.com and will be included in their upcoming print anthology. Sarah was also interviewed for the “Writer Talks” YouTube interview hosted by Elizabeth Ann Atkins. See:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvzSYygKLs4&t=10s

“Rift Zone” was published by PenDust Radio for their June 2021 podcast, read by Rebekah Nemethy. Listen here: https://pendustradio.com/fiction/rift-zone/

“Revival” was a semi-finalist in the 2020 Doris Betts Fiction Award. “Revival” also placed second in the 2019 Writers’ Workshop of Asheville literary fiction contest. It will be published in an upcoming collection of the author’s stories.

“A Good Voice for Horses” was a 2019 fiction winner and published in The Plaid Horse (December 2020/January 2021).

“Two Out of Three” was voted into seventh place in Sixfold’s Winter 2019 issue.

“Fishing” won the 2019 Dreamers fiction award. It appears in the November 2019 issue of Dreamers Magazine. This story was also a finalist in the 2020 Ageless Authors fiction competition.

“The Bus Driver” earned fifth place in Sixfold (Winter 2017 fiction issue, reader-voted).

Lizzy Baby: A novella

Sensitive and quiet, the product of a conventional rural family that values faith and unquestioning obedience, nine-year-old Liz Walters longs for a clear path to adulthood.
She wishes for everything her best friend Stefanie has: confidence; knowledge about the mysteries of life; and warm, supportive parents.
When Liz’s own parents decide that she is ready for a “facts of life” lesson, she watches her heifer being bred—an experience that teaches her plenty about the harsher realities of farm life, but very little about human sexuality.
After a family member assaults her, Liz must make a terrible choice: Must she remain silent, or can she find a voice? Who will believe her and whom can she trust?

Reviews
A controlled, haunting tale of abuse and betrayal. —Kirkus Reviews

Her insurrection is both believable and triumphant. —a reader

A somber coming-of-age novella…a gripping story that made my blood run cold. I truly wanted to reach inside the book and bring her to a safer place. —Trix Lee, Readers’ Favorites

Available at your favorite independent bookstore: IndieBound.org (including Malaprop’s in Asheville NC), or on Amazon in paperback and e-book editions.

Stories to Go, edited by Sarah Blanchard

Stories to Go is an anthology of short fiction created by Sarah’s College for Seniors Fall 2021 writing class at the UNC-Asheville Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI). It’s available on Amazon in paperback and kindle ebook formats: https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asin=B09NCKP7TL&preview=newtab&linkCode=kpe&ref_=cm_sw_r_kb_dp_GX7ZSDFEZ92FGB9RT7XN