Sara Johnson Allen

Sara Johnson Allen was raised (mostly) in North Carolina. Her fiction has appeared in PANK Magazine, SmokeLong Quarterly, and Reckon Review. She was recently awarded runner-up in the 2022 Third Coast fiction contest. In 2018, she was awarded the Marianne Russo Award for Emerging Writers by the Key West Literary Seminar for her novel-in-progress. In 2019, she received the Stockholm Writers Festival First Pages Prize. She has also been awarded MacDowell fellowships and an artistic grant from the Elizabeth George Foundation. When she is not grading papers or chasing after her three kids, she likes to write about 'place' and how it shapes us.

DOWN HERE WE COME UP (August 2023)

This novel is about three women who have lost connection with their children, through alienation, adoption, and across a militarized border. Their lives intersect in a "safe house" for migrant workers outside of Wilmington, North Carolina in 2006.

From her deathbed, con-artist Jackie Jessup lures home her estranged 26-year-old daughter Kate Jessup. There, Kate meets former teacher Maribel Reyes, who is separated from her family in Ciudad Juárez. While none of these women trust each other, they do have a chance to get back what they have each lost. But they must rely on each other to hatch a perilous plan Kate doubts could ever work. She knows to distrust the motives behind any of her mother's plans. Something unseen is smoldering underneath the surface. Kate just needs to figure it out.

As the three women work alongside each other, the evils of human trafficking, the lucrative lure of the drug and weapons trade, and the heartbreak of people fleeing their homelands flow through Jackie's bungalow day and night.

A story of mothers and daughters, lost children, and broken love, Down Here We Come Up, takes a raw and intimate look at flawed people who are trying to make up for lost time and past miscalculations.

Winner of the 2022 Big Moose Prize

“This debut is a literary mic drop. From its propulsive start to its satisfying close, Down Here We Come Up captures the convergence of three women who must weigh what's unpalatable against what's best for their children. Maternal sacrifice beats at the heart of this book, but its blood courses through the evolving landscape of race and class in the American south, the expanding drug trade, and the exploitation and abuse of migrant workers. It's an origin story and an examination of belonging composed in vibrant detail, with tone and themes reminiscent of Where the Crawdads Sing and Netflix's Ozark. Down Here We Come Up, like the hospitality attributed to its setting, will draw you in and won't easily let you go." —Alena Dillon, author of Mercy House and Eyes Turned Skyward

“In exquisite prose, Sara Johnson Allen explores motherhood in the face of wrenching economic and racial realities of the American south yet weaves moments of joy and exhilaration throughout. Down Here We Come Up is written with such empathy and grace that I felt I knew these women and will carry them with me for a long time.” –Ana Reyes, author of The House in the Pines

“With Down Here We Come Up, Sara Johnson Allen reminds us that home can be an emotionally messy place––and our mothers even messier. Allen masterfully captures these complexities with propulsive, wholehearted storytelling. This is a remarkable and beautifully written debut!” –Deesha Philyaw, author of The Secret Lives of Church Ladies