Her first academic book, The Awkward Age in Women’s Popular Fiction, 1850-1900: Girls and the Transition to Womanhood, was published in 2004 by Oxford University Press. Her second, The Promise of the Suburbs: A Victorian History in Literature and Culture was published by Yale University Press in 2019 and was a "Choice" Outstanding Academic Title. 

Her new book, The Lost Orchid: A Story of Victorian Plunder & Obsession, will be published by Harvard University Press on May 6, 2025, and earned a Kirkus Starred Review. Professor Bilston has also published numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals, such as Victorian Literature and Culture, Victorian Review, Cusp, and ELT, and two novels, Bed Rest (published in 2006 in nine languages) and Sleepless Nights (2009) with HarperCollins.

Professor Bilston teaches a wide range of courses in Victorian literature, from 100 level introductory courses, to 200 level topic-based seminars (eg “Victorian Short Fiction”) and upper-level seminars (eg “British Literature of the 1890s"). She was a Digital Humanities Fellow in AY 2021-22.

Bilston was very happy to receive the Thomas Church Brownell Prize for Teaching Excellence in 2017. Her website is at www.sarahbilston.org.