Tramp Press

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Independent book publisher. The Most Normal Woman by Roisin Kiberd forthcoming end of August! Supported by the Arts Council of Ireland.

Image shows font cover of book titled The Most Normal Woman: Essays on Appearances by Roisin Kiberd. Image is of collage style fragments of a picture of a white woman's face. She has make-up, appears to have make up on and lip filler, and her eyes have unnatural sparkles. She's not smiling.

Photograph of the Irish Times and magazine, opened on the review pages and showing a rave review for The Steps by Juliano Zaffino, along with a photograph of Juliano in a blue jacket, with his head titled slightly to the side.

Photo shows author JUlian Zaffino in a red jacket, seated in front of a table with copies of his book and a cake, talking to someone who appears to be getting her copy of the book signed while people are queuing behind her

Photograph of a pile of copies of The Steps by Juliano Zaffino, overlaid with this text:

'Intimate and eerie, The Steps offers us glimpses of grief, desire and family dynamics that intensify word by word into a finely balanced tale.' – Anthony Shapland

Poster for book tour of The Steps by Juliano Zaffino. Image is photo from the jacket cover, and a thumbnail of the cover. Text reads: "The Steps Book Tour, 24 April Cúirt Festival, Galway, 4pm Mick Lally Theatre, 28 April Warwick Books, Warwick, 6:30pm, 30 April Burley Fisher Books, London, 7pm. The Steps will be published on 30 April, pre-order your copy now!"

Photo of authors Sophie White and Maggie Armstrong with brochure text from the festival:

In Conversation
Literature
Love, Lies & Modern Lives

Authors Maggie Armstrong and Sophie White
15.00 All Saints Church

Two of Ireland’s most exciting contemporary writers – Sophie White and Maggie Armstrong – come together for a rich discussion about shaping narrative, writing modern relationships and capturing the tensions of everyday life. Drawing on Armstrong’s sharply observed linked stories in Old Romantics alongside White’s compelling exploration of relationships in Such a Good Couple, the pair will delve into craft, character and the messy brilliance of human connection.
An engaging, thoughtful exchange with time for audience questions.

An image of the cover of The Steps by Juliano Zaffino. Photograph of people on rocks at a beach. Includes quote by Sara Baume

Photo of Bill Whelan, Gethan Dick and Denise Whelan in front of a painting of Kate O'Brien and a banner poster for the Kate O"brien festival. The lighting was brutal but this is the photo the Irish Times ran with.

Screenshot of the section of the blogpost where Jack talks about Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky, which you can read at the link

Image is of the book cover of Water in the Desert, Fire in the Night by Gethan Dick. Headline reads 'Shortlisted for the 2026 Kate O'Brien Award'

Image shows jacket for The Steps by Juliano Zaffino. A photograph of a boy and girl climbing on rocks by the sea. Their backs are to the viewer, and the image is soft-focus.

Poster for Dublin Book Festival event: cover of An Alternative Irish Christmas: An Anthology on a blue background with the following info: Sun 9 Nov, Book launch, 3.15pm, IMMA venues.

Basic Income for the Arts public consultation

There is a Government survey currently open for submissions, available here:

https://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/2025-public-consultation-BIA

Please share it with your networks, friends and family to gather as much support for the Basic Income successor scheme as possible!
The public consultation will close on Friday, 5th of September 2025.

"This morning, the sun endures past dawn. I realise that it is August: the summer's last stand" - Sara Baume, handiwork

Review of Water in the Desert, Fire in the Night by Gethan Dick:

Genre-wise, large tracts of the Irish writer Gethan Dick’s debut novel, Water in the Desert, Fire in the Night, could be described as gentle apocalypse. Or softcore Armageddon, perhaps. Society has collapsed after plague and war, but while wolves do howl and marauders do maraude, such menaces feel distinctly remote. Consequently, the book opens to strange and tender emotions. A band of neighbours team up and resolve to cycle from their shattered south London street to southern France. But they don’t flee in panic. They leave only once they’ve lain on their home beds long enough to feel ready to abandon them forever.

One character cannot reconcile himself to the new world, insisting that one day “the clock would run backwards and it would once again be the time of beer in taps and burgers in freezers and bread in packets and milk in cartons”. So held “by the solidity of how things had been”, he cannot understand they will never be that way again. These quiet melancholies of a slow calamity give the reader pause – especially as Dick nudges us to ask if we’re in one already.

Book cover for The Iron Age by Arja Kajermo, illustrated by Susanna Kajermo Törner. A pencil drawing shows two barefoot boys in old-fashioned clothes standing somberly, one with a cigarette. Playing cards, a plane, and a birch tree add surreal touches. A black pool with a gemstone lies at their feet. Red and black handwritten-style text announces it was shortlisted for the Davy Byrnes Award.

Book cover for The Iron Age by Arja Kajermo, illustrated by Susanna Kajermo Törner. A pencil drawing shows two barefoot boys in old-fashioned clothes standing somberly, one with a cigarette. Playing cards, a plane, and a birch tree add surreal touches. A black pool with a gemstone lies at their feet. Red and black handwritten-style text announces it was shortlisted for the Davy Byrnes Award.

Graphic for The Prompt, a show presented by Zoë Comyns. The design features bold, stylized text in red on a cream-colored background with green and red geometric elements. A green box reads: “Maggie Armstrong This Sunday 29 June at 7:30pm.”

Book cover of Corpsing: My Body & Other Horror Shows by Sophie White. The design features a black-and-white Victorian house with a pair of women's legs in heels emerging from the bottom, replacing the building's lower half. Three bats fly above the roof. The title "CORPSING" is bold and red across the legs, with the subtitle in turquoise. The author's name is in red at the bottom.

Image is a copy of Gethan Dick's Water in the Desert Fire in the Night, next to a bookplate that looks a bit like a title page. It's been signed by Gethan with the word "Enjoy!". Backdrop looks like burnt floorboards and suits the apocalyptic vibe of the novel.

Photograph of a part of a page from The Ticket magazine, with a Photograph of Gethan Dick. She is standing in Marseilles on a sunny day, looking away from the camera. The pull quote reads: Gethan Dick 'To misquote William Gibson, the apocalypse is already here, it's just not evenly distributed.'

Invitation to the launch of Water in the Desert, Fire in the Night by Gethan Dick in Hodges Figgis, Dublin at 6pm. Gethan will be introrudced by Mike McCormack and she's designed some really cute bookmarks that will go to the first people who arrive.

Image of the cover of Water in the Desert, Fire in the Night by Gethan Dick. To the right, a quote from Anne Griffin's review in the Sunday Independent.

Screenshots of the May newsletter from Tramp Press showing an invitation to the launch of Water in the Desert, Fire in the Night by Gethan Dick, and some information about the Listowel Festival and the International Literary Festival of Dublin

An image of the invitation to the launch of Water in the Desert, Fire in the Night by Gethan Dick, on May 15th at 6pm in Hodges Figgis. The invitation incorporates a photograph by Gethan Dick of spider web on a dark red clay ground.

Cover of Maggie Armstrong's Old Romantics. It's pink and green, with images of fruit in glasses

A bookshelf with every Tramp Press title, and a Christmas bauble in the shape of a gift

Photograph of 'How I Spend My Money' column from Sunday Independent with answers by author Maggie Armstrong. Self-deprecating and funny.