Anthologies#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| Tales of Two Americas |
2017 |
Buy |
It Happened Reading Order#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| It Happened in Montana |
1992 |
Buy |
| It Happened in Colorado |
1993 |
Buy |
| It Happened in Oregon |
1994 |
Buy |
| It Happened in Washington |
1995 |
Buy |
| It Happened in Northern California |
1999 |
Buy |
| It Happened in Georgia |
2000 |
Buy |
| It Happened In Yellowstone |
2001 |
Buy |
| It Happened in the Civil War |
2002 |
Buy |
| It Happened on the Lewis and Clark Expedition |
2003 |
Buy |
| It Happened in South Carolina |
2003 |
Buy |
| It Happened in Pennsylvania |
2005 |
Buy |
| It Happened in Oklahoma |
2006 |
Buy |
| It Happened in Seattle: Remarkable Events That Shaped History |
2007 |
Buy |
| It Happened on the Mississippi River |
2008 |
Buy |
| It Happened in Rocky Mountain National Park |
2008 |
Buy |
| It Happened in Minnesota |
2008 |
Buy |
| It Happened in Philadelphia |
2008 |
Buy |
| It Happened on the Santa Fe Trail |
2008 |
Buy |
| It Happened in Massachusetts |
2008 |
Buy |
| It Happened in the Old South |
2009 |
Buy |
| It Happened in Las Vegas |
2009 |
Buy |
| It Happened in South Dakota: Remarkable Events That Shaped History |
2009 |
Buy |
| It Happened in Florida |
2009 |
Buy |
| It Happened in Virginia |
2009 |
Buy |
| It Happened in Seattle |
2009 |
Buy |
| It Happened in Kansas |
2010 |
Buy |
| Outlaw Tales of Kansas |
2010 |
Buy |
| It Happened in Ohio: Remarkable Events that Shaped History |
2010 |
Buy |
| It Happened in Michigan: Remarkable Events That Shaped History |
2011 |
Buy |
| It Happened in Indiana |
2011 |
Buy |
| It Happened in South Carolina, 2nd |
2011 |
Buy |
| It Happened in Illinois |
2011 |
Buy |
| It Happened in Nebraska: Remarkable Events That Shaped History |
2012 |
Buy |
| It Happened in West Virginia |
2013 |
Buy |
| It Happened in Mississippi |
2013 |
Buy |
| It Happened in Wyoming |
2013 |
Buy |
| It Happened in Glacier National Park |
2014 |
Buy |
| It Happened in Louisiana: Remarkable Events That Shaped History |
2015 |
Buy |
| It Happened in Louisiana |
2015 |
Buy |
| It Happened in Texas |
2015 |
Buy |
| It Happened in Northern California: 2nd Edition |
2015 |
Buy |
| It Happened in Northern California: Stories of Events and People That Shaped Golden State History |
2015 |
Buy |
| It Happened in South Dakota |
2016 |
Buy |
| It Happened in Arizona |
2016 |
Buy |
| It Happened in Iowa |
2017 |
Buy |
| It Happened In Rocky Mountain National Park 2nd edition |
2018 |
Buy |
| It Happened in Nebraska |
2019 |
Buy |
| It Happened in Ohio |
2019 |
Buy |
| It Happened in Michigan |
2019 |
Buy |
| It Happened in the Great Smokies |
2020 |
Buy |
| It Happened in the Florida Keys |
2020 |
Buy |
| It Happened in New Hampshire |
2020 |
Buy |
| It Happened in New Mexico |
2023 |
Buy |
| It Happened in Connecticut |
2023 |
Buy |
| It Happened in Florida Revised |
2025 |
Buy |
Memoirs#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| Heartland |
2018 |
Buy |
Non-Fiction#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| She Come By It Natural |
2020 |
Buy |
| Bone of the Bone: Essays on America by a Daughter of the Working Class |
2024 |
Buy |
Sarah Smarsh is a fifth-generation Kansan and journalist who covers socioeconomic class, politics, and public policy. Her reporting has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, and Harper’s, among other publications. She has also taught creative nonfiction at Washburn University in Topeka.
Smarsh’s literary work includes It Happened in Kansas, part of Globe Pequot’s long-running regional history series, which collects stories of notable events from across the Sunflower State. Her memoir Heartland was a finalist for the National Book Award and traced her childhood on a Kansas farm during the 1980s and 1990s, examining how cyclical poverty shaped her family across generations. She Come By It Natural looked at Dolly Parton’s career as an expression of working-class feminism and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her most recent book, Bone of the Bone, collects essays on class division, politics, and American culture written between 2012 and 2024.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many books has Sarah Smarsh written?
Sarah Smarsh has written 59 books across four series.
What was Sarah Smarsh's first book?
Sarah Smarsh’s first book is It Happened in Montana, published in 1992.
What is Sarah Smarsh best known for?
Sarah Smarsh is best known for Heartland, her 2018 memoir about growing up working class on a Kansas farm, which was a finalist for the National Book Award and an instant New York Times bestseller. She also wrote She Come By It Natural, about Dolly Parton and working-class feminism, and contributes to the Globe Pequot “It Happened in” regional history series.