“…gripping as any thriller” —Library Journal
“…impassioned, wonderfully constructed” —Publisher’s Weekly
“…intriguing, beautifully written” —Lit Hub
“… brilliant” —The Underground Bunker
“…Catching Heaven is rich, warm, and utterly satisfying. It speaks to choices and mistakes that connect and separate us, as well as the human will to repair itself. This is a wonderful debut from a first-rate storyteller.”
Amy Tan
“Sands Hall is a wonderful writer, full of soul and feeling.”
Ann Lamott
“Reading this book is like learning how a juggler juggles… invaluable for writers new and old, and for anyone giving or taking a writing workshop.”
Lynn Freed
“Light a Candle” Los Angeles Review of Books‘ blog
“Theim’s Winged Chariot” New England Review
“Silver Dagger” Green Mountains Review
“Hide & Go Seek” Iowa Review. (Listed as one of 100 Other Notable Stories in Best American Short Stories, 2009, edited by Alice Sebold.)
Writers Workshop in a Book (Chronicle Books, 2007) includes Sands Hall’s essay “Making Workshops Work.”
Since 1969, the prestigious Squaw Valley Community of Writers has helped develop the art and craft of many who are now household names. Instructors such as Michael Chabon, Mark Childress, Diane Johnson, Anne Lamott, Robert Stone, and Amy Tan have distilled their advice and wisdom from seminars and lectures, and the result is a book that captures the workshop experience of complete submersion in the writing process. With an introduction by novelist and short story master Richard Ford, himself a conference attendee in the 1970s, this volume gives the writer and dedicated reader a jolt of inspiration, sharp insight into matters of technique, and a feeling of camaraderie with a writing community.
The Workshop: Seven Decades of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop (Hyperian, 2001) includes Sands Hall’s essay “The Backpack, or Lessons from a Tough Workshop.”
This collection consists of forty-three stories, each with an introduction by writers from the Iowa Workshop. It also includes original essays on both the writing life and trends in 20th century American Literature that were shaped by the growth of the Iowa program and the programs that followed.
Sands’s produced plays include an adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, and the comic-drama Fair Use, which takes on the controversy surrounding Wallace Stegner’s decision to “borrow” the writing and life of 19th century writer Mary Hallock Foote in his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Angle of Repose.