We’re delighted to announce the Tramp Press 2018 list, which is made up of an incredible debut novel, an anthology of science fiction, and our first non-fiction title! Hold on to your pearls, folks, first up:
Problems by Jade Sharma
Publishing: 1st May 2018 (Ireland) and 10th May (UK). Preorders available here, order it from Tramp Press or ask in your local bookshop.
‘As horrible, and as fully human, as men in literature have always been allowed to be’
– The New York Times
Maya is funny, observant, smart and self-destructive. Maya has problems: a sweet, handsome heavy-drinking husband she is no longer sure she loves. A detached older lover who will not take her frantic calls. Her overdue thesis and dead-end retail job. Her dying mother. Herself, most of all, and her escalating drug habit.
Problems is a novel of the body that happens in the head. It is direct, full-frontal, graphic, but tender and melancholic too. Maya’s narration is explicit, upsetting and often shamelessly sexy. Through the unraveling of her marriage, the comedic awfulness of her visit to her in-laws, her obsession with her weight, and the constant intense physical ebb and flow of her drug use, Problems takes the reader on a compelling, uncomfortable and thrilling ride.
Girls meets Trainspotting with a shot of David Sedaris on speed, Problems makes a story of addiction and redemption fresh, necessary and desperately funny.
Explicit and raw, Problems is an astonishing debut novel. You can preorder from Amazon here, or wait and order from your local independent bookseller!
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In July, we will be publishing our first ever non-fiction title!
Notes to Self: Essays by Emilie Pine
Publishing in July (Ireland & UK).
‘The person who loves the addict exhausts and renews their love on a daily basis’
As most people know, Tramp Press only publishes fiction. We wanted to focus on the kind of work that excited us most, and that wouldn’t necessarily find a home otherwise. Recently though, we got to talking with Emilie Pine (a very talented writer on the subjects of modern drama, memory, and institutional abuse), about an essay she’d written. We made up a list of non-fiction publishers and journals who would likely accept her work, read Emilie’s essay ourselves, then deleted that list. We agreed the writing was so accomplished and Emilie’s story so vital, that we’d have to break our own rule and publish her work ourselves. We asked for more essays, and Emilie delivered. Over the past year, Notes to Self has emerged from our conversation.
A remarkable addition to the great and growing movement of literary non-fiction writing by women like Leslie Jamison, Roxane Gay, and Eula Biss, Notes to Self is one such collection from an Irish perspective that we’re really excited to share.
In this vivid and powerful collection of essays, Emilie Pine boldly confronts the past to better understand herself, her relationships and her role in society.
Tackling subjects like addiction, fertility, feminism and sexual violence, and where these subjects intersect with legislation, these beautifully written essays are at once fascinating and funny, intimate and searingly honest.
Honest, raw, brave and new, Notes to Self breaks new ground in the field of personal .
You can check out an extract from Notes to Self in the current issue of The Stinging Fly.
What does this mean for our submissions policy?
As you’ll see from our submissions guidelines, we still don’t officially accept non-fiction. We’re really keen to find great new fiction. We’ll only publish non-fiction on a commission basis for the time being, so we are not accepting memoirs, histories, etc., right now.
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Introducing our Recovered Voices title for 2018:
A Brilliant Void: A Selection of Classic Irish Science Fiction
Edited and Introduced by Jack Fennell
Publishing November 2018 (Ireland and UK)
‘It’s true that I was hungry for adventure, and that I had a craving for weird and wonderful things, but the fact was that I did not believe for one minute that anything would come of it!’
This year’s Recovered Voices title (the 5th in the series) boldly goes into the annals of Irish science fiction to bring you a strange and wonderful world of time-travel, alien visitations, terrifying monsters and a story about the Civil War and temporal paradoxes.
We’re delighted to be working with the mage of forgotten Irish science fiction writing, Jack Fennell, (author of the study Irish Science Fiction – which you can check out here). Jack has spent many months in libraries and archives putting together an outstanding collection of Irish science fiction and novel extracts dating up to the 1960s.
A Brilliant Void is a fascinating eye-opener into a genre that we don’t normally associate with Irish writers. The anthology include pieces by authors who were important literary figures in their day, as well as unknown and pseudonymous writers who employed science fiction to address the cultural/political issues of the time.
To borrow from a reading Jack recently gave on this topic: The significance of this anthology is twofold. Firstly, the science fiction of the past gives us an insight into how our ancestors imagined their future: it tells us what they hoped for, what they were afraid of, and what they considered inevitable. Secondly, science fiction allows us to look at the commonplace from a hypothetical remove: what, for example, would a Martian make of a hurling match or a banking inquiry? This kind of extrapolation has always been a part of the Irish imagination, regardless of dominant trends and stereotypes, and it is brought to the fore in this anthology.
It’s every bit as fun to read as it has been to work on!
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Tramp Press gratefully acknowledges the support of the Arts Council
