Sara Fitzgerald’s Followers (7)

Sara’s Bookshelves

to-read (1)
currently-reading (2)
read (13)
did-not-finish (0)

Sara’s Friends (103)

Stephen Selbst

1,669 books | 63 friends

Mark Suriano

351 books | 97 friends

Kirstin Downey

31 books | 14 friends

Harriet Hirsch

499 books | 50 friends

Kathy

1,349 books | 57 friends

Megan

288 books | 106 friends

Calvin Donald

136 books | 56 friends

Jane Sarosdy

488 books | 9 friends

More friends…

Sara Fitzgerald

Goodreads Author

Website

https://sarafitzgerald.com/

Twitter

sarafitzumich1

Genre

Biography, History, Historical Fiction

Member Since

January 2020

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/sarajfitzgerald

edit data

Sara Fitzgerald is a retired journalist and an award-winning author of both non-fiction and fiction. She has been drawn to the stories of little-known women since she majored in history and journalism at the University of Michigan and wrote her senior history thesis on the flapper phenomenon. In 1972, she became the first woman to hold the title of editor in chief of The Michigan Daily.

She spent the bulk of her professional career as an editor and reporter, including 15 years at The Washington Post, and stints at what was then The St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times, The Miami Herald, the Akron Beacon-Journal, and National Journal magazine. At The Post, she served as editor of its first electronic edition in 1980, thus qualifying herself for membe
Sara Fitzgerald is a retired journalist and an award-winning author of both non-fiction and fiction. She has been drawn to the stories of little-known women since she majored in history and journalism at the University of Michigan and wrote her senior history thesis on the flapper phenomenon. In 1972, she became the first woman to hold the title of editor in chief of The Michigan Daily.

She spent the bulk of her professional career as an editor and reporter, including 15 years at The Washington Post, and stints at what was then The St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times, The Miami Herald, the Akron Beacon-Journal, and National Journal magazine. At The Post, she served as editor of its first electronic edition in 1980, thus qualifying herself for membership in the Facebook group "I Was Online Before You Were Born." Those experiences led her to work for a trade association serving the online industry. and later, helping to found a consulting firm that helped schools and libraries take advantage of a federal program to get them connected to the Internet.

After retiring in 2005, she wrote a biography of a childhood heroine, Elly Peterson, one of the few women playing on the national political stage in mid-20th-century America. Her subsequent biography, "Elly Peterson: 'Mother' of the Moderates," was chosen as a 2012 Notable Book of the Year by the Library of Michigan and recognized with a State History Award by the Historical Society of Michigan.

Her love of writing, historical research and telling the stories of little-known women then drew her to the life of Emily Hale. In anticipation of the release in January 2020 of the more than one thousand letters that Hale's youthful love, the poet T. S. Eliot, wrote her over the course of their lifetimes, Fitzgerald decided to try to bring her to life in a novel that was released just as the letters were opened for scholarly research. That novel was published as The Poet's Girl. After the letters were opened, she continued her research. Her traditional biography of Hale, The Silenced Muse: Emily Hale, T. S. Eliot and the Role of a Lifetime, will be published in September 2024 by Rowman & Littlefield.

In July 2020, the University of Michigan Press published Conquering Heroines: How Women Fought Sex Bias at Michigan and Paved the Way for Title IX. The book chronicles the 1970 sex discrimination complaint that women filed against the University of Michigan. Their success--in the years immediately before the passage of Title IX--provided the model that overnight changed academic hiring practices across the country.

Fitzgerald hopes to continue to share the struggles and successes of a previous generation of women, stories that inspired her own life. She enjoys sharing her writing experiences in speeches, at writers' conferences and with book groups, whether in person or through virtual gatherings.

--Photo Credit: Karen Kasmauski ...more

Combine Editions
Sara Fitzgerald’s books

Average rating: 3.88 · 67 ratings · 14 reviews · 4 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Poet’s Girl 4.12 avg rating — 43 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Silenced Muse: Emily Hale, T. S. Eliot, and the Role of a Lifetime 3.86 avg rating — 14 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Elly Peterson: "Mother" of the Moderates 2.83 avg rating — 6 ratings — published 2011 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Conquering Heroines: How Women Fought Sex Bias at Michigan and Paved the Way for Title IX liked it 3.00 avg rating — 4 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars