Sarah Bernstein (born April 23, 1987) is a Canadian writer and scholar. She was born in Montreal, Quebec, and now lives in Scotland where she teaches literature and creative writing. She has taught at the universities of Sheffield, Edinburgh and Strathclyde.
Her collection of prose poems Now Comes the Lightning appeared in 2015 and was shortlisted for the Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Writing. Her debut novel The Coming Bad Days was published in 2021.Lauren Elkin, "The Coming Bad Days by Sarah Bernstein review – a study in unknowability". The Guardian, June 3, 2021. Her next novel, Study for Obedience, was shortlisted for the 2023 Booker Prize and won the 2023 Giller Prize.
In 2023, Bernstein was named by Granta as one of their twenty Best of Young British Novelists.
Education Bernstein earned a combined undergraduate degree in English and Creative Writing from Concordia University before pursuing a Master of Arts at the University of New Brunswick.
Awards Year Title Award Category Result Ref.2023Study for Obedience Booker Prize — Giller Prize — 2024 Scotland's National Book Awards Fiction Book of the Year 2025 International Dublin Literary Award —
Works Novels The Coming Bad Days (2021) Study for Obedience (2023)
Poetry Now Comes the Lightning (2015)
References