Rosemary Hennigan
Rosemary has always read voraciously. “I wrote my first novel at 12 – it was about the 1916 rising, and my second as a teenager. I loved drama and ballet, always, but studied law to…
Amy Cronin
A bookish, non-sporty child, Amy was always writing stories, and they were always dark and edgy. After college she moved to Northampton with her boyfriend, now husband. “I worked in the Avon headquarters, and…
Eddie Hobbs.
Eddie comes from an artistic family. “As a child I was always happy to entertain,” he says. “I was a ventriloquist for a while.” Leaving school at 16, with his Leaving Certificate, Eddie worked for Cork…
Sheila Armstrong
An imaginative child who read constantly, Sheila started writing in her teen years, finding the process cathartic. From university Sheila worked in publishing interning with New Island, Lilliput, and The Irish Writer’s Centre before going freelance…
Mia Doring
A prolific reader, Mia was always writing. As a child, she wrote sequels to the books she loved. After Art college, Mia moved to Berlin where she made some art, and taught English as a Foreign…
Tracey Lange
Brought up in Manhattan, Tracey comes from a large extended Irish family. “We spent a lot of summers in Northern Ireland,” she says. “My Dad comes from County Down, and Mum’s family came from Dublin…
Richard Chambers
Richard’s love of reading and learning came from his mum. “I never thought I’d be a journalist,” he says, “but as a child I was always writing stories. And aged 10, and 11, I sat…
Edel Coffey
Edel has always wanted to write fiction. “I got into journalism as a pragmatic response to a romantic dream of being a writer,” she says. After doing placements at The Tribune during her degree, she…
Nita Prose
Nita remembers the moment, at 3 ½, that she realised she could read, and the world of stories opened up. “I was always good with words,” she says, “and hopeless at almost everything else.”…
Claire Lynch
Claire’s family were great users of the library. “I always wanted to be a writer, but in the way people who love to read want to – as an abstract fantasy. I wasn’t chasing it.”…
Niall Bourke
Niall came from a house full of books. But at college he became fascinated by the whole area of economics. After college he spent a year in Australia doing any job he could find. “I put…
Ian Mark.
When Ian was 5 years old, and living in Derbyshire, he wrote a story, and his English teacher was so impressed that she bound it and made a cover. “That’s when I decided I wanted to…