About
Sarah S. Kilborne is an author, performance artist and activist. She has written books for both children and adults, fiction and non-fiction, and has performed as both a solo artist and in collaboration with others. She is creator of the acclaimed show, The Lavender Blues: A Showcase of Queer Music Before World War II. She is the founder of the LGBTQ equal rights campaign Kiss for Equality™️, and she serves as vice president of the Biographers International Organization. Her work has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, Slate, the Huffington Post and more. A graduate of Yale University, she holds a degree in philosophy. (So she thinks a lot.) She lives in upstate New York.
A Personal Note From Sarah:
Bios tend to be all facts and you're often left wondering who is the person behind them. So here's a little more about me than the standard fare.
I was born in Michigan but grew up in Florida. Yet I'm not exactly a Floridian because most of my family is from New England. I was educated in both public and private schools, both day and boarding, both in the south and in the north. I'm kind of hard to pin down. That goes for my interests as well. I was your classic artsy kid. As a child I wanted to be a singer, an actor, a painter, a writer, an architect...and I pursued each interest with gusto until adolescence when a perfect storm of events made it really hard for me to accept that I was someone "outside of the box." What did I do? Like so many others I stopped doing things that drew attention to myself. Being different - or feeling that I was different - was scary, uncomfortable, and my free spirit went underground.
Photo credits: Janeo O’Connor
For years the only creative activity I embraced was writing, because you can do it in private and nobody has to know. I wrote my first book literally in secret - an approach that isn't uncommon for some writers. You're not really sure what you're doing or whether what you're writing will work and you want to figure it out on your own, without other people getting in the way.
Finding my voice and, more importantly, claiming my voice in all the ways it wishes and needs to express itself is something that has taken time. But I'm happy to say that the artsy kid has turned into an artsy adult after all. I sing. I write. I dance. I've designed spaces. (I'm a certified Feng Shui practitioner. It's true.) What is my north star? The ancient art of storytelling. I believe powerfully in the ability of stories to touch us, move us, shift us, educate us, and unite us like nothing else. No matter what medium I explore, I aspire to tell a story that is worthy of being told.
As a kid I also volunteered a lot, and being of service - being part of the larger story - is extremely important to me. This helps fuel my passion for activism. I feel everyone's voice deserves to be heard and treated equally with respect and dignity.
I am a work-in-progress! And that's a good thing. I hope to be so until the very last page of this adventure is written.