Cork writer up for British Book Awards: ‘I don’t want to shy away from my Irishness’

THE setting of Chloe Michelle Howarth’s debut novel Sunburn – West Cork, 1993 – is purposefully chosen.

The young author, born three years earlier, wanted to depict a world before mobile phones.

“The plot wouldn’t have worked if the characters had mobile phones,” she explains over the phone, speaking from a very sunny Brighton, her home of the last three years.

“There would have been too much secrecy. The writing style is also too romantic. It is partly told in love letters, not the kind of thing you can put into text-speak.

“There is a strongly nostalgic feel to the book too.”

The other reason for setting a large part of the novel in 1993 links to the significance of the date for queer people. Homosexuality was only decriminalised in 1993.

“I chose the date to highlight what unsteady ground the characters would have been on at that time. Again, I didn’t experience that as a young queer person growing up some time later. 

It certainly wasn’t as difficult for me as it is for some of my characters. But I do think that Ireland has changed a lot since I was a teenager. Young people now are so much more comfortable with their gender and sexuality.

“It wasn’t dangerous for me, but it also wasn’t celebrated in the way it is now. This new generation of young people are so brave. They are fantastic.”

Asked if young people are her target audience, the author says not specifically.

“I didn’t write it with anyone particular in mind, but I would say it is for teenagers and up. People my age and older who have read it say it brought them back to their youth. Teenagers who have read it say it is exactly what they’re experiencing now.

“You will always have some kind of inner turmoil growing up. We all find difficulty accepting ourselves, so in that regard this book is not exclusively about a queer experience.”

Sunburn and the sting of first love

Described as an ‘astute and evocative portrayal of first love, adolescent anxieties, and the realities of growing up on a small rural town’, Sunburn tells the story of Lucy who is facing her final exams and the end of school. Feeling alienated from those around her, things change when she forms a strengthening bond with Susannah, a dynamic teenager who lives in the Big House.

“The title was the very last thing that came. I felt it was symbolic because first love has a long impact. It is like a long, hot summer that stays with you, a bitter-sweet memory.”

Social class plays a role too, she explains.

“The main character has a lot of expectations on her from family and other people around her. She lets them define her as she is not able to fight against it. 

She needs someone to put her through school, and college. But for Susannah, it’s different. She is much freer, knowing there will be an inheritance.

Happy Surprises

Chloe Howarth has been writing since she was a teenager. Impressively, this is the first book she has written, and it also the first thing she has had published.

The whole experience has been a long string of happy surprises for the Rosscarbery-born author.

“It is only now looking back that I realise how good I have had it with my publishers, Verve. They have been an amazing team to work with. I have had so much creative freedom, which is not always the case.

“I keep thinking things will slow down but then the next thing happens. It is close to a year since Sunburn came out and it’s all still going.”

And it certainly is still going. Sunburn was shortlisted for the inaugural Nero Book Awards in the Debut Fiction category and is now also shortlisted at the British Book Awards in the Discover category.

Brighton Base, Cork Heart

The writer describes West Cork as her ongoing inspiration.

“I started writing Sunburn when I was living in West Cork. It just came naturally. Most of my work since is set in rural Ireland. I find it so inspiring, so fascinating, visually, and atmospherically.”

Although away from home, she lives with two Dublin girls who she met whilst studying English, Media, and Cultural Studies in Dun Laoghaire. As she puts it, she is always ‘flying the flag for Cork”.

In fact, she is in the throes of planning her holidays in West Cork this summer.

Proud to be described as an Irish writer, she takes inspiration from other Irish writing talent.

“I think Claire Keegan is wonderful, a master at refining. She can say so much with so few words. She is a once in a lifetime talent. My work is very Irish, including names and place names; I keep the dialogue as Irish as possible. I don’t want to shy away from my Irishness.”