Promiscuous Writing: Jumping Across Forms Sara Baume, Gustav Parker Hibbett and Ralf Webb

Three writers, Sara Baume, Gustav Parker Hibbett, and Ralf Webb – who write across forms of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, art writing, and beyond – discuss their writing practices with Tolka, a Dublin-based literary magazine that publishes ‘formally promiscuous’ non-fiction. These writers will explore how easy or difficult it is to jump between different mediums, their various approaches to writing poetry, fiction and non-fiction, as well as discussing specific pieces they have written for Tolka. The discussion will be followed by the launch of Tolka Issue Twelve, with short readings from featured contributors.

Sara Baume is the author of three novels, Spill Simmer Falter Wither, A Line Made by Walking and Seven Steeples, which was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize and the International Dylan Thomas Prize, and one book of narrative non-fiction, handiwork, which was shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize. She has received the Rooney Prize for Literature, a Lannan Literary Fellowship, the E. M Forster Award and in 2023 she was named one of Granta magazine’s ‘Best Young British Novelists.’ Her fifth book, Opening Night, was published in July 2026. She is based in West Cork where she works also as a visual artist.

Gustav Parker Hibbett is a Black poet, essayist, and MFA dropout. Their debut poetry collection, High Jump as Icarus Story (Banshee Press, 2024), won the John Pollard Foundation International Poetry Prize and was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize, among other honours. They were the 2025 Commissioned Writer for Temple Bar Gallery + Studios, and they have recently completed a PhD in Literary Practice at Trinity College Dublin.

Ralf Webb is the author of poetry collections Highway Cottage and Rotten Days in Late Summer, as well as the non-fiction book Strange Relations, which was shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award. His poems, essays, and fiction have appeared widely. His debut novel, Two Lovers, will be published in 2027.

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