Sassafras Patterdale


Sassafras Patterdale is an American author and dog trainer. In 2013, the Lambda Literary Foundation awarded them the Betty Berzon Emerging Writer Award.

Personal life

In the early 2000s, at age 17, Patterdale came out as non-binary and genderqueer. Patterdale was homeless as a teenager and no longer has a relationship "with the family that raised ."
In 2024, Patterdale divorced their partner of nineteen years. They live with their dogs in Portland, Oregon.

Education

Patterdale received a Master of Fine Arts in Fiction from Goddard College.

Career

Dog trainer

Patterdale is an All Star Trainer of the Year-certified trick dog instructor, and American Kennel Club Canine Good Citizen and Tricks evaluator. They " trained and competed in canine sports from dog agility and rally obedience to canine parkour and tricks and has appeared on AKC TV and BBC radio." They are authorized by American Kennel Club.

Writer

Patterdale’s writing includes characters of varied genders who use a variety of pronouns. They said, "I'm equally committed to normalizing the presence of non-binary characters as I am to non-binary language in literature."
Their writing has been published through traditional and self-publishing means. Discussing the reason why they sometimes opt for self-publishing, They noted, "Although traditional publishing has made a lot of progress in prioritizing and uplifting #OwnVoices work, many marginalized writers, including LGBTQ writers and writers of color, are still locked out of lucrative book deals. Even if traditional publishers buy books, they may not pour resources into them, leaving the labor of promoting and marketing to the authors." They continued, "Self-publishing can also mean not having to adjust a story or voice to fit with a publisher’s vision... can be the best way to reach readers who need them most, and to maintain artistic control over their projects."
Aside from full-length books and anthology contributions, Patterdale has written for HuffPost, The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, Wired, the American Kennel Club, Narratively, Dogster, Modern Dog, Whole Dog Journal, Bark, Catapult, Catster, Lambda Literary, and others.
Patterdale has taught creative writing at LitReactor and the New York City Center for Fiction, as well as led the Queer Shelter Project Stories Workshop as part of the arts programming for Queers for Economic Justice. they have also mentored for Association of Writers & Writing Programs twice and provides writing coaching to private clients."

Selected awards and honors

Publications

Anthology contributions