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Episode Description
My guest today is an Irish writer, poet, critic, and podcaster. Born and raised in Dublin, she began writing seriously as a teenager, studied English, Media and Cultural Studies at IADT, and later completed a Master’s in Creative Writing at NUI Galway. Her early work included the poetry collection Follies and Not Lost, a book of essays about emigration written after she moved to San Francisco in 2012.
Since returning to Ireland, she has published a series of acclaimed novels, including Spare and Found Parts and Other Words for Smoke, which won Teen and Young Adult Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards. Her 2025 horror novel Eat the Ones You Love was followed by a shortlist for Author of the Year, and she is now the 2026 Arts Council Writer Fellow at Trinity College Dublin. Alongside her fiction, she writes about games for The Guardian. Her new horror novel, Strange Is the Light, is out now, and she is currently working on another book, about video games, titled Everything Not Saved.
LINKS
Sarah Maria Griffin – books & socials
Sarah Maria Griffin – official website
Sarah Maria Griffin – Instagram (@sarahgriffski)
Sarah Maria Griffin – Substack
Sarah Maria Griffin – writing about games for The Guardian
Strange as the Light (out 8 September 2026)
Strange as the Light – Waterstones
Strange as the Light – Titan Books
Strange as the Light – Bookshop.org UK
Earlier novels
Eat the Ones You Love – Waterstones
Other Words for Smoke – Waterstones
Sarah's Perfect Console
EarthBound (SNES, 1994) – Wikipedia
EarthBound – Nintendo Switch Online
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask – Wikipedia
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door – Nintendo
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door – Wikipedia
Night in the Woods – official site
Other references mentioned
Chicory: A Colorful Tale – official site (Greg Lobanov, also made Wandersong)
826 Valencia – literacy non-profit, San Francisco
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin – Waterstones
Rock, Paper, Shotgun – games journalism
Glenn Moore – Button Boys podcast
Next week's guest
Chris Cantrill – Edinburgh Comedy Award Best Show winner 2026 (Rewilding)
Chris Cantrill – Chortle profile
Support the show
My Perfect Console – episode archive
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