Sarah Winifred Searle originally hails from spooky New England but currently lives in sunny Perth, Australia. They write and draw comics and prose, best known for vulnerable memoir and compassionate fiction.
Sarah’s work includes graphic novels such as SINCERELY, HARRIET (Graphic Universe, 2019), PATIENCE & ESTHER (Iron Circus, 2021), WHO WAS THE GIRL WARRIOR OF FRANCE? JOAN OF ARC (Penguin Workshop WhoHQ, 2022) and THE GREATEST THING (First Second, 2022). You might recognize them from contributions to series such as Jem and the Holograms: Dimensions, Valiant's Faith, and Adventure Time, or the dozens of short comics they’ve made for indie anthologies and magazines. Their work has been shortlisted for Slate's Cartoonist Studio Prize, nominated for the Ignatz Outstanding Story Award, and won two silver Ledger Awards.
Website: http://www.swinsea.com/
Subsidiary Rights:
Unless specified below, for France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, and Brazil: agence@lorafountain.com.
For all other inquiries: jen@linnanliterary.com.
RUINED - artist, with Niki Smith
(First Second Books, Nov 2023)
Rights:
France (Rue de Sevrès)
Germany (Loewe Verlag)
The whole town is whispering about how Catherine Benson lost her virtue, though they can never agree on the details. Was it in the public garden? Or a moving carriage?
Only a truly desperate man would want her now―and that’s exactly what Andrew Davener is. His family’s estate is in disrepair, but Catherine’s sizeable dowry could set it to rights.
After the two wed, Catherine finds herself inexplicably drawn to Andrew. But could falling in love with her husband tear her marriage apart? In this richly detailed Regency romance, duty and passion collide in a slow-burn tale of intertwined fates.
THE GREATEST THING
(First Second, February 2022)
Rights:
ANZ (Allen & Unwin)
France (Jungle)
Spain (Grupo SM)
Winifred faces her sophomore year of high school with dread until she meets a pair of queer, punky freshmen. They teach her how to modify her clothing to feel more comfortable in her skin, using pins and patches to create a suit of armor. These new friendships and the comic zines they produce together keep Win afloat as she navigates issues of body image, disordered eating, and depression. THE GREATEST THING is a fictionalized memoir about the kinds of well-meaning moments and quiet mistakes that help a person figure out not just who they are, but who they need to become.
WHO WAS THE GIRL WARRIOR OF FRANCE?
JOAN OF ARC - writer
(Penguin Workshop, January 2022)
Rights: Penguin Random House
Follow Joan of Arc on her journey to convince the Dauphin to let her lead the French army in the Battle of Orleans and win the Hundred Years' War. A story of faith, courage, and determination, this graphic novel invites readers to immerse themselves in the life of the teenage French heroine -- brought to life by gripping narrative and vivid full-color illustrations that jump off the page.
SERENDIPITY anthology - contributor
(Feiwel & Friends, January 2022)
Rights: childrensrights@macmillanusa.com
ANZ (Text Publishing)
Latin America (V&R Editoras)
UK (Faber & Faber)
Love is in the air in Serendipity, a collection of stories inspired by romantic tropes and edited by #1 New York Times bestselling author Marissa Meyer.
The secret admirer.
The fake relationship.
The matchmaker.
From stories of first love, unrequited love, love that surprises, love that’s been there all along, 10 of the brightest and award-winning authors writing YA have taken on some of your favorite romantic tropes, embracing them and turning them on their heads. Readers will fall for this collection of stories that celebrate love at its most humorous, inclusive, heart-expanding, and serendipitous.
PATIENCE & ESTHER
(Iron Circus Comics, January 2021)
Patience & Esther: An Edwardian Romance is an erotic historical romance graphic novel about two women who fall in love while working in service, and their subsequent journey toward social and financial independence as they try to make a real life together.
In another time, the two women would have likely kept one another’s company forever in their little attic bedroom, living out their days together in the employ of a Lord. But the world is changing. The age of Empire has brought with it not only plundered wealth, but worldliness and social revolution. Suffragists agitate in the street, idle-rich bohemians challenge sexual mores, and Patience and Esther slowly come to realize the world is wider and full of more adventure and opportunity than they ever imagined… so long as they find the will to seize it.
SINCERELY, HARRIET
(Lerner Graphic Universe, May 2019)
2019 Silver Ledger Award winner
2019 Ignatz Award nominee
Rights: Lerner
Harriet Flores struggles with boredom and an unrequited crush while learning to manage her chronic illness through a long, hot, 1990s summer in Chicago. She uses her imagination to cope, which sometimes gets her into trouble, as she makes up fantastical fibs and wonders if there are ghosts upstairs. One neighbor, Pearl, encourages Harriet to read and write, leading Harriet to have a breakthrough and discover the power of storytelling.