I write about anxiety, intimacy and absurdity, in both fiction and nonfiction. I have a particular interest in the body, and the ways in which it escapes our control.

My first book, The First Time I Thought I Was Dying, a collection of non-fiction essays about the unruly body in late capitalism, was published by UQP in 2021 and won the Quentin Bryce Award. My work has appeared in The Monthly, Overland, Meanjin, Island Magazine, Kill Your Darlings, the ABR, the AFR and The Guardian, and has been recognised in awards in Australia and internationally. I’m represented by the excellent Rach Crawford at Wolf Literary.

THE FIRST TIME I THOUGHT I WAS DYING

A collection of essays about bodies and control.

We live in a world that expects us to be constantly in control of ourselves. Our bodies and minds, though, have other ideas.

In this striking debut, artist and writer Sarah Walker wrestles with the awkward spaces where anatomy meets society: body image and Photoshop, phobias and religion, sex scenes and onstage violence, death and grief. Her luminous writing is at once specific and universal as she mines the limits of anxiety, intimacy and control.

Sharp-witted and poignant, this collection of essays explores our unruly bodies and asks how we might learn to embrace our own chaos.

Winner of the 2021 Quentin Bryce Award.

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