Interviews

Name: Sara Baume
TCD Qualifications: M.Phil Creative Writing (2011)

About: Sara was born in Lancashire and grew up in Co Cork. She studied Fine Art at Dun Laoghaire College of Art and Design before completing a Master’s in Creative Writing at Trinity. She has recently won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature in recognition of her debut novel, Spill Simmer Falter Wither. The prestigious award is given annually to an emerging Irish writer under forty years of age, through the generosity of Dr Daniel Rooney, President Emeritus of the Pittsburgh Steelers, and his wife Patricia.

Pictured L-R: Peter Rooney, Sara Baume & Trinity Provost, Dr Patrick Prendergast at the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature 2015 award ceremony.

Tell us a little bit about the route you took into writing?
After school, I studied Fine Art in IADT Dun Laoghaire. I specialised in sculpture, and so after graduation, without a studio space or access to workshop equipment, it was difficult to continue. In 2008, I was awarded a studentship from the Douglas Hyde Gallery in TCD. I spent nine months there, and to be honest, this was a much more formative period of my life than the year I spent in Trinity as a student. While I was based in the gallery, I started writing, initially about art, and then gradually, fiction.

How did Trinity’s M.A. in Creative Writing influence your work?
There were some outstanding moments: I remember walking across campus chatting to Richard Ford. It was a late autumn evening, leaves falling and sun setting, incredibly atmospheric. I remember a workshop with Dermot Healy, not so much what he taught us as the magnificent presence of the man. I only wrote one decent story during that year and after submitting my thesis, it was accepted to be published in The Stinging Fly magazine. That was what really encouraged me to believe I might have a future in writing, beyond the classroom. 

How did it feel to win Trinity’s prestigious Rooney Prize for Irish Literature?
It was magic, of course. I flew home from a residency in the US to attend the ceremony, which in itself was intensely surreal. During the speeches, I kept thinking about all the very ordinary days I’d struggled to get to the end of a page. I realised I had never really believed it would actually all turn out okay, and I wondered what it was that made me write on anyway.

Spill Simmer Falter Wither is the story of a 57-year-old man who is “too young for starting over, too old for giving up”. Where did the inspiration come to write this novel?
It came from moving back to the countryside, and suddenly being an outsider, and feeling isolated. It came from experiencing rural Ireland from an altered angle. It came from adopting a dog nobody else wanted, thinking I was saving him, and then seeing how he ended up saving me.

Who was your biggest advocate throughout the process of writing this novel?
My mother, to whom it is dedicated. She is an archaeologist by profession, and a lifelong reader, an expert reader, and the wisest and kindest person I know. She read an early draft and said: it isn’t there yet but it’s certainly worth continuing…which proved to be the best possible advice at that time.

Anne Enright (also a Rooney Prize recipient) spoke at the book launch in Dublin. Tell us about that?
Anne was one of the judges of the Davy Byrnes Short Story Award which I won in 2014. She has been such a great support ever since, not just in terms of championing the novel, but looking out for me as a person, as a writer. I can’t imagine a better laureate. 

Describe your ideal surroundings for writing?
At the moment, I’m staying in a cabin in Iowa, surrounded by oaks. But I intensely miss the sea. For the last five years, I’ve lived right on the edge of a bay, and I’ve watched the tide rise and fall every day. One of my best friends at home (the poet, Doireann Ni Ghriofa) often describes in her emails what the crows in Cork are doing, the settlements they are establishing, the sound of their cawing. There aren’t any crows or gulls or pigeons in Iowa, and I miss them. I like them around me for writing, I think - Crows and the sea.

What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
I find it a funny question because, in many ways, I still feel like I’m an aspiring writer. But just keep going; that’s the main thing I’ve learned. If you’re good, then eventually your writing will find the right reader. If you aren’t good, then eventually, you’ll improve. I’d like to think I’m still improving too.

What’s next for Sara Baume?
Two weeks from now I’ll be in Washington DC, then NYC, then Edinburgh, then The Hague. My life has become very strange and fascinating in recent months, and I’m very grateful, but I am also trying to write a new book, between the cracks. And there are lots of things I want to build in the future, if opportunity allows, and not just sentences…