Spill Simmer Falter Wither (Baume)

Author Bio
• Birth—1984
• Where—Lancashire, England (UK)
• Raised—County Cork, Ireland
• Education—M.F.A., Trinity College
• Awards—Davy Byrnes Short Story Award
• Currently—lives in County Cork, Ireland


Sara Baume has always immersed herself in images. In addition to being a highly acclaimed debut author (yes, "debut"—attaining resounding success with her very first novel), she is also a visual artist. It is an artistic sensibility that finds its way into her writing:

First and foremost I see; I see the world and then I describe it.... I don't know another way to write. I always anchor everything in an image.

That anchoring is clearly evident in her 2015 novel, Spill Simmer Falter Wither. Critics have praised the book's vivid, poetic, even "dazzling" descriptions of the natural landscape.

Baume's short fiction has appeared in The Moth, Stinging Fly, Irish Independent, and other publications. Her story, "Solesearcher1," won the prestigious Davy Byrnes Award. Simmer Falter actually began as a short story before morphing into a novella and eventually into a full-fledged novel.
 
Personal
Baume was born in a caravan in Lancaster, England; her English father worked on rural gaslines, so the family traveled from place to place. But when there came to be too many children to fit in the van, they settled down in her mother's home country of Ireland. Lyndsay was four when the family moved to County Cork, and it is where she lives today with her two dogs. (Adapted from interviews with NPR and Totally Dublin. Retrieved 3/20/2016.)

Be sure to visit the author's blog.