Sara Baume’s debut novel has been making quiet waves since its publication in January. Patrick Kelleher talks to the acclaimed writer about getting published, trying to earn a living, and her love of art.
Chatty, charming and always entertaining, talking to author Sara Baume, who released her debut novel Spill Simmer Falter Wither in January, is a thoroughly enjoyable affair. She is so affable and at ease that it is easy to forget that she is, in fact, an award-winning writer. She is well regarded not just by readers, but by fellow writers, with author Joseph O’Connor calling Spill “the most impressive debut novel I’ve read in years”. Indeed, Baume won the Davy Byrne short story award for 2014 for her story ‘Solesearcher1’, collecting a €15,000 prize in the process. However the money doesn’t mean she’s automatically wealthy. In fact, she says that she’s far from it.
“It’s an awful lot of money,” she says. “But when you’re just expecting to live on it – that money is not spent on anything shiny. I’m just continuing to live exactly as I had lived before, and when I need to just use that money to pay rent that’s what I’ll do. I think that’s what all writers do with awards, none of them are rich people.”
A part of her humble attitude may come from the very nature of her writing. Hers is firmly embedded in a tradition of literary fiction, and in her own words, “not much happens, it’s a quiet book. It’s an odd book in my mind. I’m surprised by the attention it’s gotten. I’m surprised it even found a publisher. Because it’s dark as well, and possibly not the easiest thing to read… people read because they want to see what happens to this character.”
Writing it was also a tedious process; she admits that she hopes to “never write another novel in the way I wrote that one.” It was made even more difficult by it being her first: she had no idea if it would even be published. “It’s the hardest thing when you’re writing your first one, because you have no idea if it’s any good, you have no idea whether you’ll finish it or not, and certainly never whether it’ll find a publisher, or you know, if it’ll allow you to produce another book. So it’s hard to get up in the morning and do this thing above and beyond any number of other things you could be doing.”
This was made even more difficult by being unemployed during this period. “I was mostly on the dole on and off,” she explains. “I had sort of crummy part time jobs, I was most recently waitressing. For almost five years now I’ve been living down the country because I just can’t afford to live in Dublin, and that’s kind of a double bind in that if I was living in Dublin I’d probably be able to get a job, but I wouldn’t be able to pay my rent, or I’d be working to pay my rent and wouldn’t be able to write. So down here, I don’t need as much money and I can do what I want, which is preferable at the moment.”
However these part-time jobs have been firmly left behind. Spill Simmer Falter Wither has achieved huge success, particularly amongst critics. She is quick to find a reason for this, saying “It really helps to be Irish at the moment,” and speaks of a “new wave” in Irish fiction. She cites the rapturous international reception to writers such as Colin Barrett, who recently won the Guardian First Book Award, becoming the second Irish author in two years to do so.
While there is undoubtedly a great respect in the literary world for Irish writers, there is obviously something about Baume’s work that is gripping the critics – and it’s not just her nationality. Her writing style is unusual, and this may be partly due to her infatuation with art. Her love of art, and her time at art college had a huge impact on her work. She says “I think my sensibility is as much influenced by the artists that I like as it is the writers that I like. I don’t feel that I’m terribly well-read in a classical sense. I feel awkward when people in literary circles start talking about War and Peace, because I could probably talk more about conceptual art since the 1960s than I could about literature, but no one ever asks those questions!”
When our conversation moves on to the advice she would offer to young writers hoping to make it in the literary world, she says that this question still baffles her. “I’ve been asked this a few times and I still find it surreal, because in many ways I’m still an aspiring writer. I’m still asking people this question!” she laughs. She is quick to explain that getting published is often random: “you have to be lucky as well as good,” she insists. She says that most of all, the key lies in practice, however.
“I did a Masters, and nothing that I wrote in my Masters has made it out into the world, really, but it gave me a sense of what my peers were writing, and it gave me an excuse just to sit down and write. And there are more and more of these courses, and I think that lots of people do them and probably only a few people emerge from them, doing what they want to do, but I still think it’s probably worth doing them. It gives you some kind of a direction with what you’re doing.”
There are other ways to help your path of becoming a writer as well, and that comes in the relieving of the monetary burden: “A rich spouse, marry a rich person!” she laughs.
Sara Baume is charming and entertaining from start to finish, and seems to really enjoy the opportunity to talk about her work. The novel itself is a great triumph for the writer, who has broken on to the literary scene with a great urgency. She is certainly a rising talent that is one to watch. Her second novel will be along at some point, as she has a two-book deal with Tramp Press. Her passion for writing is huge, and hers is the path of a talent whose star will undoubtedly continue to rise.
Spill Simmer Falter Wither is published by Tramp Press and is available from bookshops and online now.
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