Sarah Broom’s Biography  

Sarah Monique Broom was born to a blended family on December 31, 1979, in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her father, Simon Broom, died shortly after she was born, and her mother raised the family in their shotgun home (narrow rectangular house) in New Orleans East. Always a lover of words and stories, Broom earned a degree in communications and anthropology from the University of North Texas and a graduate degree in journalism from University of California, Berkeley.

After starting her career in newspaper journalism, Broom went on to work as an editor for O Magazine. Her work has also appeared in The New York Times and The New Yorker. For a time, Broom served as the director of a nonprofit organization in Africa before returning to work as a speechwriter for New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin. Winning the Whiting Foundation Creative Nonfiction Grant in 2016 allowed her to focus on researching and writing her memoir. The Yellow House is Broom’s first book and has been awarded the 2019 National Book Award for Nonfiction and become a New York Times Best Seller.