Sophie White at the Oxford Literary Festival
2023-03-26 16:00 - 17:00 (Europe/Dublin) | Oxford Martin School, 34 Broad St, Oxford, OX13BD, United Kingdom
Tramp’s Sophie White and novelist Nicole Flattery discuss their latest novels and the female voice in contemporary Irish literature as part of this year’s Oxford Literary Festival.
White’s Where I End is a story of psychological and physical horror with a shattering ending. Teenager Aoileann has never left the island where she lives. Her mother is silent and bedbound after surviving a private disaster no-one will talk about. Aoileann desperately wants a family and finds a focus for her love when artist Rachel and her baby arrive on the island. The story is concerned with family, isolation, neglect and the dangerously intoxicating nature of love. Check out the book here.
Flattery’s Nothing Special is set in 1960s New York where teenager Mae is hired as a typist for Andy Warhol. Her job is to work alongside other girls to transcribe recordings Warhol has made of his friends as part of a plan to write an unconventional novel. She and some of her fellow typists set off on a surreal adventure at the fringes of the countercultural movement. Mae has to determine how she can remain her own person as the tide of the 60s sweeps over her. Nothing Special is Flattery’s debut novel.

Sophie White in conversation with Alice Kinsella and Una Mannion
2023-04-05 20:00 - 21:00 | The Linenhall Arts Centre, Linenhall St, Gorteendrunagh, Castlebar, Mayo, Ireland
To celebrate the publication of Milk: On Motherhood and Madness, by Alice Kinsella, the Linenhall Arts Centre in Castlebar is hosting a panel discussion with Alice and Tramp author Sophie White on Wed 5 April 2023 at 8pm. The event will be chaired by novelist Una Mannion.

Sophie White, Carmen Maria Machado, and Camilla Grudova at Cúirt 2023
2023-04-19 20:30 - 21:30 | Nun’s Island Theatre, Galway, H91H322, Ireland
Haunting Fiction: Cúirt welcomes three of the most exciting writers reimagining the genre of horror: Carmen Maria Machado, Tramp Press’s Sophie White and Camilla Grudova. Join them for a conversation about their latest work and the themes that haunt their writing. Book your tickets here.

US Launch of Juanita Casey’s The Horse of Selene (2022) with Contributing Editor Mary M. Burke
2023-04-27 19:00 - 20:00 | Glucksman Ireland House, 1 Washington Mews, New York, NY, NY 10003, United States
Friends in the US! Our friends in Glucksman Ireland House will be celebrating the reissue of Juanita Casey’s The Horse of Selene this April in an event with contributing editor and Casey expert, Mary M. Burke. Book your ticket here.
On a remote island off the West coast of Ireland in the 1970s, young farmer Miceal catches sight of a girl on a beach with long hair so blonde it could be white. Befriending the girl and her travelling companions, a world of possibility opens up to Miceal – but where there’s opportunity, there is also peril.
Juanita Casey’s The Horse of Selene is a cult classic ready to be rediscovered by a new generation of readers. Drawing on her own life and speaking for her marginalized community, Casey offers a feminist and class-conscious story that explores the eternal choices of youth, between the comfort of a stifling domesticity and the promise and risk of the unknown, characterized in the incomparable wildness of the West of Ireland. The bestselling Casey takes her place alongside such writers as JM Synge and Kevin Barry – the missing connection between the two.

Juanita Casey (1925–2012), bestselling novelist, celebrated poet, horse trainer, and artist, was born to an Irish Traveller mother and an English Romany father and raised by English adoptive parents with ties to the circus industry. Casey identified with the many heritages she considered her own: she resided with Romanies in England for a time, worked as a circus horsemaster, and lived a bohemian life in Ireland with her Irish husband in the 1960s and 1970s.
Contributing Editor Mary M. Burke is Professor of English at the University of Connecticut and author of Race, Politics, and Irish America: A Gothic History (2022). She is a former University of Notre Dame NEH Keough-Naughton Fellow, Trinity College Dublin LHR Visiting Fellow, and MLA Irish Literature Committee chair. Burke is graduate of Trinity College Dublin and Queen’s University Belfast.

A Conversation between Sara Baume and translator Brian Robert Moore
2023-05-21 14:00 - 16:00 | Books Upstairs, 17 D'Olier Street, Dublin 2, Ireland
On the afternoon of Sunday 21st of May, Books Upstairs will celebrate the publication of Lalla Romano’s A Silence Shared with a conversation between Sara Baume and translator Brian Robert Moore. Enrica Maria Ferrara will moderate the conversation and all are welcome to this event. Admission is free but booking is recommended. Click here to book.

Sophie White at the West Cork Literary Festival
2023-07-10 14:30 - 15:30 | Maritime Hotel, The Quay, Kinathfineen, Bantry, Cork, P75 XW35, Ireland
Join Tramp’s Sophie White and Anya Bergman at the West Cork Literary Festival this July.
From women condemned as witches in 17th century Norway to a family of woman shunned and considered ‘cursed’ on a remote island off the coast of Ireland, these new novels by Anya Bergman and Sophie White introduce us to women on the edge, women who are not accepted by society.
Anya and Sophie will be in conversation with Deirdre O’Shaughnessy

Book your ticket here: https://www.westcorkmusic.ie/events/2023/anya-bergman-sophie-white/
Sophie White‘s Where I End takes place on a remote and bitter island, where at its farthest and hardest edge lies a house with three women – a house the islanders will not approach, whose inhabitants they fear, whose secret runs deeper than the unwelcoming sea. Aoileann is alone: unschooled, friendless and unworldly. Móraí, her taciturn, utterly practical grandmother, is her only companion – but their connection is purely utilitarian. They are bonded in their work, tending daily to the bed-thing in the room next door. Aoileann’s mother is a wreck, the survivor of a private disaster no one will speak about. The islanders shun Aoileann and her family as if they are cursed (spitting on the ground as Aoileann passes), while her father’s monthly visits to his broken, haunted wife are tense and full of denial. Aoileann desperately wants a family, and when Rachel and her baby move to the island, she finds a focus for her relentless love and the simmering resentment of her years in lonely confinement.

Anya Bergman‘s The Witches of Vardø is set in Norway in 1662. A dangerous time to be a woman, when even dancing can lead to accusations of witchcraft. When Zigri, desperate and grieving after the loss of her husband and son, embarks on an affair with the local merchant, it’s not long before she is sent to the fortress at Vardø, to be tried and condemned as a witch. Zigri’s daughter Ingeborg sets off into the wilderness to try to bring her mother back home. Accompanying her on this quest is Maren – herself the daughter of a witch ​- whose wild nature and unconquerable spirit gives Ingeborg the courage to venture into the unknown, and to risk all she has to save her family. Also captive in the fortress is Anna Rhodius, once the King of Denmark’s mistress, who has been sent to Vardø in disgrace. What will she do – and who will she betray – to return to her privileged life at court? These Witches of Vardø are stronger than even the King of Denmark. In an age weighted against them they refuse to be victims. They will have their justice. All they need do is show their power.

Ann-Marie MacDonald at the West Cork Literary Festival
2023-07-14 13:00 - 14:00 | Bantry Library, Bridge St, Carrignagat, Bantry, Cork, P75 K402, Ireland
Join Ann-Marie MacDonald and Soula Emmanuel at Bantry Library for a discussion about their brilliant new novels.
Soula’s debut Wild Geese is the story of a young Irish woman living in Copenhagen almost three years into her gender transition. Ann-Marie’s Fayne is set in the late 19th century and is a queer coming-of-age novel about a young person struggling to establish their place in the world within the strict boundaries of contemporary society.

Sara Baume at the West Cork Literary Festival
2023-07-14 15:00 - 16:00 | National Learning Network, Donemark, Bantry, Co Cork, Ireland
Running Feet, Sharp Noses with Sara Baume & Jessica Traynor
What is it about animals? – those creatures that keep us company, a figure in a memory or folktale, the shadowy presence in a photograph, or an ancient drawing on a wall. Guides, companions, imaginary beings, hindrances, sources of fear and love … Running Feet, Sharp Noses is an essential collection of essays on the animal world. Each piece is a profound meditation on how animals affect our sense of self, our memories, our actions. Join Sara Baume and Jessica Traynor for what promises to be a fun discussion at the wonderful West Cork Literary Festival.
The festival advises: this is an outdoor seated event so please dress according to the weather on the day. We do have a rainy-day alternative at the venue but will endeavour to be outside if possible

Sara Baume at the Edinburgh Book Festival
2023-08-25 10:15 - 23:30 | Spark Theatre, United Kingdom
Sara Baume & Kapka Kassabova: Nature’s Alchemy
When we listen more closely to the natural world, what do we learn about ourselves? Sara Baume’s novel Seven Steeples (shortlisted for the 2023 Dylan Thomas Prize) is the tender story of two people living a life dictated by the seasons and nature. Meanwhile Kapka Kassabova travelled down the Mesta River valley in Bulgaria for her sublime non-fiction book Elixir, learning from foragers, healers, and mystics who enjoy a symbiotic relationship with nature. Chaired by Jessica Gaitán Johannesson.

This Plague of Souls: Dublin launch
2023-10-26 18:00 - 20:00 | Hodges Figgis, 56-58 Dawson St, Dublin, Dublin 2, D2, Ireland
Join us to celebrate the launch of Mike McCormack’s new novel, with a reading, signing and glass of wine at Hodges Figgis.
This Plague of Souls is Mike’s first novel since his Goldsmiths Prize-winning critically acclaimed Booker-longlisted novel Solar Bones. He describes it as ‘part metaphysical thriller, part roman noir’. The story follows a man named Nealon, recently released from jail, who returns to his family home in the West of Ireland only to find an empty house. It seems the world has forgotten that he even existed. The one exception is a persistent caller on the telephone, someone who seems to know everything about Nealon’s life, his confusing bother with the law and, more importantly, what has happened to his family. All Nealon needs to do is talk with the stranger.
Mike McCormack is simply one of the greatest writers working today. We can’t wait for readers to connect with This Plague of Souls – if you loved Solar Bones, you’ll love Mike’s latest masterpiece.
This event is free, everyone is welcome.
