Sara Baume on longlist for £25,000 prize

Irish author Sara Baume has made the longlist for the 2015 Warwick Prize for Fiction. Baume’s is one of 13 nominees for her debut novel Spill Simmer Falter Wither, from a list that includes internationally acclaimed authors such as Marilynne Robinson, Karen Joy Fowler and Karl Ove Knausgaard. The £25,000 biennial literary prize, run by the University of Warwick, is an international cross-disciplinary award open to any genre or form of writing. The theme for this year’s prize is Instinct.

The titles include one poetry, seven fiction and five non-fiction books, with short stories, memoir and science fiction represented. The diverse list features a tale of sign-language dependent Maya siblings, an examination of Aristotle’s pioneering biological work and a lyrical love letter to commercial aviation. Other subjects include the loss of a young daughter, a mysterious expedition into an environmental disaster zone, and Baume’s tale of friendship between an outcast and a one-eyed dog in rural Ireland. Independent publishers are well represented with eight titles on the list from Bloomsbury, Carcanet, Canongate, Granta, Scribe, Serpent’s Tail and Baume’s Irish publisher Tramp Press.

Baume has also been longlisted for the Edinbrugh International Book Festival First Book Award. In April, William Heinemann publisher Jason Arthur bought UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, to Spill Simmer Falter Wither and an untitled second novel from independent Irish publisher Tramp Press.

Arthur said: “Irish literature seems to be experiencing something of a renaissance, and in the last few years Ireland has produced more than its fair share of brilliantly talented young writers. But even with that in mind, Sara Baume’s unique talent is something very special indeed. Spill Simmer Falter Wither is an exceptionally original and impressive work.”

2015 longlist:

Spill Simmer Falter Wither by Sara Baume (Tramp Press) - Fiction

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler (Serpent’s Tail) - Fiction

Divided Lives by Lyndall Gordon (Virago) - Non-fiction

Her Birth by Rebecca Goss (Carcanet) - Poetry

The Dig by Cynan Jones (Granta) - Fiction

Redeployment by Phil Klay (Canongate) - Fiction

A Man In Love by Karl Ove Knausgaard (Harvill Secker) - Non-fiction

The Lagoon: How Aristotle Invented Science by Armand Marie Leroi (Bloomsbury) - Non-fiction

Lila by Marilynne Robinson (Virago) - Fiction

Ismael and His Sisters by Louise Stern (Granta) - Fiction

Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson (Scribe) - Non-fiction

Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer (Fourth Estate) - Fiction

Skyfaring by Mark Vanhoenacker (Chatto & Windus) - Non-fiction