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Sarah Joseph was born into a conservative Christian family at Kuriachira in Thrissur city in 1946 to Louis and Kochumariam. She went for the teacher’s training course and began her professional career as a school teacher. Later she did her M.A. in Malayalam and joined the collegiate service in Kerala. She served as a Professor of Malayalam at Sanskrit College, Pattambi. She has retired from government service and lives at Mulamkunnathukavu in Thrissur district.

Sarah Joseph’s literary career began very early, while she was in her High School. Many of her poems appeared in Malayalam weeklies. She was also good at reciting her poems at poets’ meets which was much appreciated by poets like Vyloppilli Sreedhara Menon and Edasseri Govindan Nair. After a short period of uncertainty she took to fiction and began writing short stories. Her collection of short stories Paapathara is considered a milestone in feminist writing in Malayalam.

She has published a trilogy of novel which includes, Aalahayude Penmakkal, Mattathi, and Othappu. Her works are essentially liberalistic, and have always been powerful enough to convey the pathetic of any suppressed group. The novel Otahppu is about a woman's yearning for a true understanding of spirituality and her own sexuality. Othappu has been translated into English by Valson Thampu with title "Othappu : The Scent of the Other Side". Her novel Aalahayude Penmakkal (Daughters of God the Father) won her three major awards the Kerala Sahitya Academy Award, the Kendra Sahitya Akademi Award, and the Vayalar Award.

She has won much critical acclaim for her Ramayana Kathakal, a subversive reading of the Ramayana. This work has been translated into English and was published by Oxford University Press.

Short stories

• Manassile Thee Matram (1973)
• Kadinte Sangeetham (1975, anthology of short stories)
• Paapathara
• Oduvilathe Suryakanthi
• Nilavu Nirayunnu
• Puthuramayanam
• Kaadithu Kandaayo Kaanthaa
• Nanmathinmakalude Wriksham (anthology of short stories)

Novel

• Thaikulam
• Aalaahayude Penmakkal
• Maattaathi
• Othappu