Sarai Walker

Visiting Assistant Professor

Phone Email Only Email smwlker6@memphis.edu Fax Office PT 440 Office Hours By Appointment

Education

Ph.D., Royal Holloway, University of London M.F.A., Bennington College B.A., Hunter College, The City University of New York 

 

Academic Summary

Sarai Walker is the author of three novels, Furious Violet (forthcoming July 2026) and The Cherry Robbers (2022), both by HarperCollins, and Dietland (2015) by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Dietland was adapted as a television series for AMC in 2018. Her novels have been published in more than a dozen countries; in France, The Cherry Robbers won the Prix des Lecteurs Gallmeister 2024. Her articles and essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian and elsewhere, and she worked as a writer and editor on an updated version of Our Bodies, Ourselves (Simon & Schuster 2005). She has lectured on feminism and body image internationally, and has spoken about these topics widely in the media. She is currently at work on a new novel and a memoir.

Books

• Furious Violet (HarperCollins), forthcoming July 2026
• The Cherry Robbers (HarperCollins), May 2022
• Dietland (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), May 2015

Select Publications

• Book Review: "Body Langauge in Middle Grade Lit," New York Times, 2021.
• Book Review: "Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman," Fat Studies Journal, 2017.
• Editorial: "The Reaction to Trump's Fat-Shaming Reinforces Toxic Ideas about Fatness," Washington Post, syndicated in the Chicago Tribune and the Sydney Morning Herald, 2016.
• Editorial: "Yes, I'm Fat. It's O.K. I Said It," New York Times, 2016.
• Books Section: "Top Ten Novels of Women's Political Awakening," Guardian, May 2016.
• Books Section: "I Stopped Holding Back, and My Writing Had a New Energy," Guardian, August 2016.
• Short Story Contest Winner: "Pink Champagne," Sassy, 1990.