Black River (Hulse)

Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1984
• Rasied—Spokane, Washington, USA
• Education—B.A., University of Montana; M.F.A., University of Oregon
• Currently—lives in Spokane, Washington


Although born in California, S.M. "Sarah" Hulse was raised in Spokane, Washington. As a high schooler, she was a congressional page and enrolled at Georgetown University in D.C., thinking of a possible career in the foreign service. She left Georgetown after a year, however, transferring to the University of Montana, where she received her B.A. in English. She taught high school in Idaho and then decided to pursue a degree in creative writing. She earned an M.F.A.from the University of Oregon. Black River, her 2015 debut novel, was her thesis project.

Hulse has also written and published short fiction. "Sine Die," a story about a congressman with anterograde amnesia, won literary magazine Willow Springs’ 2011 fiction prize, earning Hulse $2,000. She has said, though, that "short stories are hard for me. I’m glad I wrote them in grad school—they’re wonderful for craft—but the prime comment I got was, 'This would make a great novel!' "

Hulse claims a kinship with the Western writing community. The list of authors who have been influential to her includes Ron Hansen, Kent Haruf, Annnie Proulx, Mark Sprague, and Thomas Savage, as well as Canadian author Mary Lawson and Ozarks native Daniel Woodrell. (Woodrell wrote a blurb for Black River.) (Adapted from a Publishers' Weekly interview.)