ISBN: 9781916632172
Price: £10.00
Scheduled Publication Date: 15 October 2025

Painting Over the Cracks is novelist Sophie Buchaillard’s poetry debut. Inspired by her life and a series of workshops she ran with survivors of abuse, this collection explores the relationship between unspoken shame and fraying family ties, and the healing power of expression, friendship, and community in overcoming trauma. Split into four chronological sections, the collection travels from the anxieties of a single mother to memories of buried traumas that lurk in corners of the mind, colouring every interaction to articulating the unspoken, strong from new friendships and rediscovered communities.

Sophie Buchaillard is the author of Assimilation (Honno, 2024) and This Is Not Who We Are (Seren, 2022), which was shortlisted for the 2023 Wales Book of the Year. Painting Over the Cracks is her debut pamphlet of poetry whose title poem was shortlisted for the Bridport Poetry Prize in 2024. Sophie holds a PhD in Creative and Critical Writing. She facilitates community-based writing workshops across South Wales, where she has lived a quarter of a century.