Description

‘I would like to make things beautiful, but a tawdry and repulsive kind of beauty. A braver sort than people have from birth. Sexy zombies on a bicep. That sort of thing.’ Ces longs to be a tattoo artist and embroider skin with beautiful images. But for now she’s just trying to reach adulthood without falling apart.

Powerful, poetic and disturbing, Needlework is a girl’s meditation on her efforts to maintain her bodily and spiritual integrity in the face of abuse, violation and neglect.

 

Excerpts

• Excerpt, An Post Irish Book Awards

Interviews

• The Journal.ie: ‘"I Wrote From Anger" - This Hard-Hitting Irish Book is about Tattoos and Tragedy'
• Sarah Webb Blog: Deirdre Sullivan Interview
• The Gloss: Writer’s Block with Deirdre Sullivan
• Image: 'Novelist Deirdre Sullivan on Writing Trauma and the Buzz Around YA Novels'
• The Honest Ulsterman: Deirdre Sullivan Interview
• Connacht Tribune: 'Heartbreak and Hope in Searing Teenage Novel'

Prizes & Awards

• Awarded CBI Honour Award for Fiction, 2017
• Awarded White Raven Award from the International Youth Library, 2016
• Shortlisted for the Specsavers Children’s Book of the Year (Senior), An Post Irish Book Awards 2016

Reviews

• Elske Rahill, Dublin Inquirer
• Geraldine Brennan, The Observer
• Luke Marlowe, The Bookbag Blog
• Emily Elphinstone, No More Workhorse
• The Guardian Children’s Books
• The Literary Sisters Blog
• The Books, The Art and Me Blog

Video

• Kennys Bookshop: Deirdre Sullivan Reads From Needlework
• TheJournal.ie: Irish Book Award Nominee Deirdre Sullivan Talks Fairy Tales and Fighting Procrastination.
• Museum of Literature Ireland: Building a Writing Practice with Deirdre Sullivan
• Museum of Literature Ireland: Tell it Again with Deirdre Sullivan

Resources For Readers

• Goodreads
• The Irish Times: Deirdre Sullivan - ‘The Seed of Needlework Was Anger, and I Wanted it to Feel Raw’
• Writing.ie: 'Skin Deep -Writers, Writing and Tattoos' by Deirdre Sullivan