Sarah Maria Griffin

Writing career Griffin developed an interest in writing as a teen. Her first book was a collection, Follies (Belfast: Lapwing, 2011), primarily of poems, with a few short prose pieces.

She expanded into writing articles for newspapers and other media outlets, including BuzzFeed and The Guardian, and the online current affairs and investigative journal, the Dublin Inquirer. Her non-fiction has also appeared in works including Guts, The Stinging Fly, The Rumpus and Winter Pages.

She was invited to co-edit the Bare Hands online poetry magazine by its founder, fellow poet Kerrie O'Brien, and they issued monthly "runs" of the journal. In 2012, a print collection of Bare Hands poetry and photography, with works by more than 25 poets and 15 photographers, was published.

Not Lost: A Story About Leaving Home, was published by New Island Books in Dublin in 2013, and comprises articles written in San Francisco, primarily on aspects of emigrant life during her first year there. A poem by Griffin, published in The Irish Times in 2016, was credited with inspiring a video in the Repeal the 8th abortion rights referendum campaign.

A second novel, Other Words for Smoke, also for the young adult market, was issued in 2019 (Greenwillow and Titan), and a third, on a commission from a major music festival, later that year. Also in 2019, the writer resumed producing zines, under the Wordfury brand. Griffin has spoken of working on a fourth novel on several occasions. The story has LGBTQIA+ elements, woven in without emphasis, as noted by review journal, Kirkus, which concluded that the book is a "page-turning whole".

Her second novel, Other Words for Smoke, is a young adult novel of the fantastic, which won Teen and YA Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards in 2019. It is set in a fictional location near Dublin, with witches and a house which is more than it appears. The book was reviewed positively by Locus magazine. The book, which has lesbian characters in key roles, was listed on a US "rainbow books" list. Griffin's third novel, The Book of Wisdom, a work of fantasy set in a library, was commissioned for Tomorrowland, one of the largest music festivals in the world, with around 200,000 copies of the book distributed to those booking festival tickets. It features two young protagonists, from Raheny and San Francisco, and was issued in a case with inserted objects and a "hidden compartment" for recipients' festival access bracelets.

Griffin has mentioned Maeve Binchy as a major influence, on her work with dialogue and character, and pace, as well as Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast and Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased). As of 2023, she was also one of the presenters of an ongoing podcast series, Juvenalia.

Having done some work in the area earlier in life, in 2019, the writer resumed producing zines, under the Wordfury brand.

Recognition and writer residencies Griffin won the 2017 European Science Fiction Awards Chrysalis Award. Her 2019 young adult novel, Other Words for Smoke, was included on the 2020 American Library Association Rainbow List,

She was awarded Arts Council bursaries five times, 2017—2018 and 2020—2022.

Griffin was the Writer-In-Residence at Maynooth University for the 2017 to 2018 academic year, where she conducted classes with students and provided workshops, talks and other events, including in county libraries. She was Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown (DLR) writer-in-residence for 2018–2019, and during that year she was one of the speakers at the official State commemoration of the sinking of the RMS Leinster. In 2021, she served as the first Edna O’Brien Young Writers Bursary Fellow in a project of Poetry Ireland, and contributed an afterword to a printed and online anthology of poetry produced as part of the Deep Routes Poetry Exchange. Not Lost: A Story About Leaving Home (as author; Dublin: New Island, 2013, , also on Kindle), essay collection Spare and Found Parts (as author; New York: Greenwillow Books (HarperCollins), 2016, / / London: Titan Books, 2018, novel Other Words for Smoke (as author; New York: Greenwillow, April 2019 and London: Titan Books, 2019, /), novel The Book of Wisdom (as author; Boom, Antwerp, Belgium: Tomorrowland, and New York: Melcher Media, 2019, , novel, issued to circa 200,000 festival subscribers) Eat The Ones You Love (as author; London: Titan Books, 2025, ), novel

Edited Bare Hands Anthology (as co-editor; Dublin and San Francisco: Bare Hands, 2012, no ISBN), a print collection from an online poetry journal with photography

Contributed Red lamp, black piano: a Cáca Milis Cabaret anthology (as contributor; Dublin: Tara Press, 2013, ) Titan Tasters: 10 Tempting Morsels from 2019-2020 (as contributor; London: Titan Books, 2019, special for Worldcon 2019) Deep Routes Poetry Exchange (mentor and afterword writer; Wexford: Ardara Press, 2021, no ISBN)

Personal life Born 28 January 1988, Griffin grew up between two Northside suburbs of Dublin, Kilbarrack and Raheny. She attended secondary school at Manor House School, Raheny, She returned to Ireland in 2015, and began working at writing full-time. She is married to Ceri Bevan.

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