Who is Sarah Byrn Rickman?
That I write about the WASP — the Women Airforce Service Pilots of World War II — is no secret. This website is full of the WASP — my books and articles about them, photos of me taken at WASP events.I serve as the editor of the WASP News, published twice a year by Texas Woman’s University (TWU) in Denton, the home of the official WASP Archives. Since 2003, I have been a WASP oral historian for TWU, recording many of these ladies’ stories on audiotape.
I’m a former journalist and former novelist who “found” herself when she met these amazing women who flew airplanes for the Army back when many women didn’t even drive cars. Writing is in my bones and telling stories has been my life’s ambition since the age of 5. Through the WASP, this author has married her journalist’s quest for facts and her artist’s desire to create stories.
And I couldn’t have picked a livelier subject. I get to “run” with these ladies — 87 and up — and I do well to keep up with them. I get to call them friends.
Please return here often to read updates on WASP doings as well as Sarah’s doings. Subscribe to my monthly newsletter, Taking Flight, by clicking this link. Read my books and watch for new ones. When I have a magazine article coming out, I will let you know.
Welcome to my website and to my world!
Sarah's Bio
- Nancy Batson Crews: Alabama’s First Lady of Flight — 2009, the University of Alabama Press;
- Nancy Love and the WASP Ferry Pilots of World War II — 2008, the University of North Texas Press;
- The Originals: The Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron of World War II — 2001, Disc-Us Books, Inc., who also published the award-winning WASP novel
- Flight from Fear — (2002)
More about Sarah
Sarah received the Combs-Gates Award for 2009 presented by the National Aviation Hall of Fame in Dayton, Ohio. Her grant is to research and write the story of the WASP who flew for the Ferrying Division in World War II. In addition to her books, Sarah is the author of numerous magazine and journal articles about the WASP. Those magazines and website information can be found on the Other Writing page of this website.
Sarah is a former reporter/columnist for The Detroit News (Michigan) and former editor of the Centerville-Bellbrook Times (Ohio). She earned her B.A. in English from Vanderbilt University and an M.A. in Creative Writing from Antioch University McGregor.
Sarah was born in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and grew up in Denver, Colorado. She now lives in Centerville, Ohio, with her husband, Richard, and their black Lab, Willa — named for the WILLA Award given by Women Writing the West (WWW) for books about women of the American West. Sarah’s novel Flight From Fear was a Finalist in the Original Softcover Fiction category in the 2003 WILLA competition.