Sara Baume

Genres: Cork | Essays | Irish Writing | Non-Fiction | West Cork

Sara Baume’s previous work includes novels Spill Simmer Falter Wither, A Line Made by Walking, Seven Steeples and her 2020 bestselling non-fiction debut, handiwork. Her writing has won the Davy Byrne’s Short Story Award, the Hennessy New Irish Writing Award, the Rooney Prize, an Irish Book Award and the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, as well as being shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize in 2020 and being nominated for countless others including the Costa and the Dublin Literary Award. She was a participant in the International Writing Program run by the University of Iowa, and has received a Literary Fellowship from the Lannan Foundation. Sara grew up in East Cork and now lives in West Cork. Seven Steeples, was published by Tramp Press in spring 2022 and subsequently shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize for Fiction and for the Dylan Thomas Prize. Sara’s essay ‘Dave’ appears in Running Feet, Sharp Noses: Essays on the Animal World which was published by PVA in February 2023.

Sara Baume, artist and Irish novelist with her dog Tove ,on Long Strand, near Clonakilty, Cork, Ireland. 



Sara Baume studied fine art and creative writing. Her short fiction and criticism have been published in anthologies, newspapers and journals such as The Irish Times, the Guardian, Stinging Fly and Granta magazine.

In 2014, she won the Davy Byrne’s Short Story Award, and in 2015, the Hennessy New Irish Writing Award, the Rooney Prize for Literature and an Irish Book Award for Best Newcomer.

Her debut novel, Spill Simmer Falter Wither was long listed for the Guardian First Book Award, the Warwick Prize for Writing, the Desmond Elliott Prize for New Fiction and the International Dublin Literary Award. It was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award, and won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize and the Kate O’ Brien Award. In autumn 2015, she was a participant in the International Writing Program run by the University of Iowa and received a Literary Fellowship from the Lannan Foundation in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Sara Baume’s second novel A Line Made By Walking was published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 2017. Her first non-fiction book, Handiwork, will be published in spring 2020.

Photo: Kenneth O Halloran ©Kenneth O'Halloran
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