“i loved it, obviously, but more than that — i admired it and will hold it very close to my chest like a talisman, in the hope that it can serve me as an example.” – Zarina Muhammad (The White Pube)
Novella
W/w follows the trials and triumphs of Mary, an aspiring artist and writer, in conflict with the world around her. Confined to the porch of her family home, Mary’s consciousness searches or a new form, a larger space, to occupy. A bildungsroman a couple of years too late, a homecoming when she’s never left home, a Künstlerroman in denial, a neurosis; W/w is a work of autofiction that spins out into the space of the world.
Read an extract of W/w on RTÉ Culture
Read reflections on W/w by Sinéad Gleeson
“so much time, effort and conversation is spent circling round the lives of artists, like they are this central mythologising main character. That is The Thing. Sarah Long’s W/w peels back the skin of The Thing and fucks with it unsqueamishly. Or, maybe there’s some squeamishness, but it doesn’t matter because she fucking does it anyway. Blood and guts up to her elbow, grimacing, making the animal move from the inside — she’s right up at the limits of language, messing with form, words are dissolving on her tongue or in my mind’s eye as I scoop it all up off the page. i loved it, obviously, but more than that — i admired it and will hold it very close to my chest like a talisman, in the hope that it can serve me as an example.”
Zarina Muhammad (The White Pube), art critic and author of Poor Artists.
“I love this book, for its hybridity, its self-deprecating poignancy, its thoughtful irreverence and its quest for wisdom, its pointed hilarity and soft absurdity, its playful mapping of shifting territories of identity, intimacy, and art — and for the generous reciprocity of Long’s imagined relationship with its readers.”
Cristín Leach, art critic and author of Negative Space.
“Long writes with a singular kind of elasticity and clarity; with curiosity and black humour; with a keen eye for detail as well as for the meaningful reverberations of history, sport, politics and popular culture.”
Sara Baume, artist and award-winning writer.
“Not I, maybe but Maybe Mary? She is radio static, broadcasting from the past. Alive, giving headers to everyone on the internet. I’ve tried to pin her down, define her position, draw her – but she’s a scribble.”
Laura Fitzgerald, artist and author of The Restless Bogman.
Sarah Long | Artist 