Saoirse (2026)
Celadon (US) Eriu/Bonnier UK (Ireland, UK, Australia)
In Michigan, Sarah’s childhood was defined by fear and silence. As a teenager, she saw a chance to escape and took it. Now, in 1999, she is an artist living on the rugged coast of Donegal, Ireland, where she is known as Saoirse, a name that sounds like the sea and means ‘freedom’ in her adopted country’s language. And free is precisely how she is finally beginning to feel. Her partner and two beloved daughters are regular subjects for her paintings, and together they have made the safe home she has always longed for. But Saoirse's secrets haunt her. No one must learn of the identity she has stolen in order to survive; they cannot know of the dangers that she crossed an ocean to escape.
When her artwork wins unexpected acclaim at a Dublin exhibition, the spotlight of fame threatens to unravel the careful lies that hold her world together. Journalists and admirers begin to ask questions about the mysterious artist from Donegal and she fears the unwanted publicity will expose all that she has done.
Saoirse is an evocative, suspenseful, and inventive exploration of the intimate relationship between art and life and the lies we tell ourselves in the name of reinvention.
“For readers of Colm Tóibín and Claire Keegan, Saoirse is a propulsive novel set between the U.S. and Ireland, about a woman who runs from her traumatic past and the secrets she carries to survive. ”
The Polite Act of Drowning (2023)
Eriu/Bonnier UK (Ireland, UK, and Australia)
Michigan, 1985. The drowning of a teenage girl causes ripples in the small town of Kettle Lake, though for most the waters settle quickly. For sixteen-year-old Joanne Kennedy, however, the tragedy dredges up untold secrets and causes her mother to drift farther from reality and her family.
When troubled newcomer Lucinda arrives in town, she offers Joanne a chance of real friendship, and together the teenagers push against the boundaries of family, self-image, and their sexuality during the tension of a long, stifling summer. But the undercurrents of past harms continuously threaten to drag Joanne and those around her under…
“ A beautiful and captivating novel, lyrical and sensuous. It is hard to believe this is a debut – it feels so accomplished, like the work of a writer who has toiled and toiled at her craft to strike her own shimmering note. ”
Selected Publications
Book Reviews
Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte: Squirm-inducing, laugh-out-loud satirical short stories (Feb 25 2025)
Barrowbeck by Andrew Michael Hurley: Stories with an ominous quality, like a knock at the door on a dark evening (Oct 26 2024)
Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner: Fun, devastating, far more urgent than a typical thriller (Sept 11 2024)
Calling for a Blanket Dance by Oscar Hokeah: A relentless and wise debut novel about indigenous people in Oklahoma (Jan 06 2024)
Dust Child by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai: A masterful exploration of the psychological wounds of the Vietnam war (Jun 24 2023)·
You Must Read This: Charleen Hurtubise on The Member of the Wedding, a lonely child’s story. Irish Independent, 8 April 2023.
Poetry
The Burren, Writing Home, The ‘New Irish’ Poets, Dedalus Press, 14 October 2019
Tornado Siren, Writing Home, The ‘New Irish’ Poets, Dedalus Press, 14 October 2019
The Museum, Poetry Jukebox on-street installation
Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris (2022)
Belfast International Arts Festival, Belfast (2022)
EPIC, The Irish Immigration Museum, Dublin (2021/2022)