Sara Baume Takes Third Geoffrey Faber Fiction Prize In A Row for Ireland

Sara Baume has been awarded the annual Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize 2015 for fiction, for her debut novel Spill Simmer Falter Wither. The prize is worth £1,500 – but has far greater significance as a gesture of recognition for a debut writer, who must be under 40 years of age to qualify.

In what amounts to a remarkable run of success for Irish writers, Baume is the third Irish novelist on the trot to win the prize – which is awarded for fiction and poetry in alternate years. It was won previously by Belinda McKeon in 2011 for Solace and Eimear McBride in 2013. Among the other previous winners are Paul Muldoon, Will Self, Emily Perkins, David Mitchell and Nick Laird.

“We considered both established novelists and first-timers,” the judges Justine Jordan, Kirsty Gunn and David Headley said, “but in the end the originality of one debut was irresistible.”

Spill Simmer Falter Wither is published by Tramp Press. Baume’s second novel, A Line Made By Walking, will be published in February, byTramp Press in Ireland and by William Heinemann in the UK. Baume is already much-garlanded in her short career, having previously won the Davy Byrne’s Short Story Award, the Hennessy New Irish Writing Award, the Roonet Prize for Literature, Best Newcomer at the Irish Book Awards and have Kate O’Brien Award.

Spill Simmer Falter Wither was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award.