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Charleen Hurtubise

Biography

Charleen Hurtubise

Charleen Hurtubise is a novelist, essayist and artist. She is author of THE POLITE ACT OF DROWNING, published in Ireland and the UK in 2023. SAOIRSE is her US debut. She holds an M.Sc. from Trinity College Dublin and an MFA in creative writing from University College Dublin, where she has facilitated creative writing seminars. The sixth sister in a family of nine, she spent much of her childhood in Michigan, her early adult years in Boston, and has now lived half of her life in Ireland, which is home. Though she lives in Dublin with her Irish family, the pull of Donegal never leaves and continues to influence her drawings and writings, including SAOIRSE.

Charleen Hurtubise

Books by Charleen Hurtubise

Saoirse
by Charleen Hurtubise - Fiction, Women's Fiction

In Michigan, Sarah’s childhood was defined by fear and silence. As a teenager, she saw a chance to escape and took it. Now, in 1999, she is an artist living on the rugged coast of Donegal, Ireland, where she is known as Saoirse --- a name that sounds like the sea and means freedom in the language of her adopted country. Her partner and two beloved daughters are regular subjects of her paintings, and together they have made the safe home she always longed for. But Saoirse's secrets haunt her. When her artwork wins unexpected acclaim at a Dublin exhibition, the spotlight of fame threatens to unravel the careful lies that hold her world together. Journalists and admirers begin to ask questions about the mysterious artist from Donegal, and she fears the unwanted publicity will expose all that she has done.