Sophie Buchaillard is a writer-poet, a grower, and a well-being facilitator who believes in the power of writing to change lives and foster strong communities for the future. She has written two novels, a dozen essays about migration, motherhood and movement; and recently a poetry pamphlet on overcoming trauma. She was a Bridport Poetry Prize and Wales Book of the Year finalist in 2024 and 2023 respectively. Sophie splits her time between facilitating creative writing in her community; observing the journey of the food she grows, from seed to table; and subverting form to re-imagine tomorrow, preferably in conversation and collaboration with other creative dreamers.

Painting Over the Cracks / Lucent Dreaming

Inspired by her life, Painting Over the Cracks is Sophie’s poetry debut. The pamphlet explores the healing power of expression, friendship, and community in overcoming trauma. 

Split into four chronological sections, the pamphlet travels from the anxieties of a single mother to emerging memories of buried traumas, and unpicks how unspoken shame has a way to colour every interaction, fraying family ties, and making it hard to fully engage with the world. 

Poetry, here, becomes a means of articulating the unspoken, claiming back a sense of community, and recognising the strength that comes from friendship without judgment. 

Assimilation / Honno

One family's story set against the backdrop of some of the biggest political and humanitarian events of the century.

A tale of unravelling family secrets, belonging, betrayal and inherited trauma, Assimilation will transport readers in time and place through one family’s history and struggle.

Charlotte, young and fiercely independent, desperately needs to escape the confines of her mother, Marianne’s expectations and a dreadful trauma. She leaves France and arrives in Wales, hoping to find peace and somewhere to rebuild her life.

Marianne, a mother with a colourful past, keeping a terrible secret, tries her best to conform to French middle class expectations.

In this stunning new novel, Buchaillard takes us on an adventure pursuing spies, drug dealers and even a talking bear.

Reviews

Assimilation is a perceptive and compelling novel that invites the reader to seek out new ways of negotiating the labyrinth of personal and cultural identity. Sophie Buchaillard weaves her tale with skill and acumen, offering rare insights into migration, foreignness, family, and much else besides.  
Richard Gwyn, The Colour of a Dog Running Away


The propulsive writing style is a joy to read in this easy-to-devour yet nourishing novel with its spartan yet incisive language and thoroughly engrossing multi-layered storylines of family, memory, and immigration—highly recommended!
O. Uyanik, Amazon

  • Assimilation – A truly clever and heart racing depiction of the human condition in one of it rawest forms. Assimilation asks what we all face at some junction in our lives - where do I belong? Where do I fit in?

    Connor Allen, author of The Making of a Monster (Former Children Laureate for Wales)

  • This is Not Who we Are – This is a powerfully empathetic and sensitive book, which reserves its real rage for the ideological fanatics who deliberately mutate anger at oppression into a specious salvationist enterprise, hate-fuelled, directed at other victims of that same oppression.

    Niall Griffiths, author of Broken Ghosts

  • Assimilation – Spanning continents and slipping between time, this sophisticated and affecting novel shows how the secrets of the past never quite disappear, casting long, long shadows over the present day.

    Jon Gower, author of The Turning Tide: A Biography of the Irish Sea

  • This is Not Who We Are – A multi-layered and very moving novel about the Rwandan genocide and the culpability of the French government. The central idea of pen friends whose letter-writing is disrupted by war feels original and offers a fruitful way into this complex subject matter. An excellent debut and I can't wait to see what Sophie Buchaillard writes next.

    Katherine Stansfield, author of The Visitor and The Magpie Tree

This is Not Who We Are / Seren Books
Shortlisted for the Wales Book of the Year 2023

In 1994 a young Rwandan woman and her brothers are caught up in the violent chaos that follows the assassination of the President. Meanwhile, in the present day, Iris – a journalist with a young family – searches obsessively for traces of Victoria, the pen-friend who disappeared during the Rwandan genocide thirty years before. As their lives interweave, both women have ghosts and secrets to confront, and must decide how to take responsibility for the past. 

This is Not Who We Are blends elements of fiction and autobiography to explore vastly different perspectives on the tragedy of Rwanda and the experience of migration. The book is deeply compassionate and clear-sighted, and asks uncomfortable questions about European culpability for the violence while never losing sight of the human complexities of its characters.

Reviews

“There is no doubt that This is Not Who We Are will resonate with anyone who is interested in exploring topics such as identity, otherness, and the power of language, as well as those simply seeking a poignant and thought-provoking novel.”
Aline Moura, The Cardiff Review

Workshops

Whether you are new to writing or on your way to the next novel, memoir or poetry pamphlet, I offer creative writing workshops to suit you. If you cannot find what you are after, do get in touch. I also offer one-to-one support.

Sophie offers a ranges of services for both individuals and organisations. Services include:

Services for individuals

  • Mentoring

  • Editing

View services for individuals >

Public Speaking and Collaborations

  • Talks, Panels and Interviews

  • Collaboration

View services for organisations >

Writing services