Kevin Doyle
Following a degree, and a Masters in Science, Kevin worked in the chemical industry for five years, before moving to the United States. “I was considering taking another degree, but I wasn’t sure it was what…
Cormac O’Keefe
Cormac started his career in journalism when he was at university, editing first, ‘Probe,’ then the UCD Student Union News. “I then worked for Big Issue for a year, before returning to university to take a…
AJ Pearce
When AJ was a teenager, she wanted to be a poet. “I wrote very bad poems. I loved writing stories, too, and going to the library. I was a very bookish child.” AJ Worked in marketing….
Paula Byrne
From a large, Catholic family, Paula started her working life as a schoolteacher. “I taught A Level English in an all boys grammar school, and then at a college of education.” Turning to academia, she gained…
Tara Westover
Following a dysfunctional childhood, Tara embraced education. In 2014, after ten years as an academic, she moved from Cambridge to London to write a memoir. But after concentrating on academic writing for ten years, she had…
Dervla McTiernan
As a child Dervla moved from Cork to Dublin, Limerick, and then to Galway where she spent her teens. A lawyer, she worked in Dublin before setting up practice in Oranmore at 26. “I worked for…
Rhiannon Navin
Brought up in Germany, Rhiannon moved to New York, when the advertising agency she worked for in Düsseldorf sent her there for four months. “I met my husband the first week I was there, and I…
Emma Quigley
Emma loved writing in school, but she was more interested in film. After college, however, she turned to the world of IT, and has been working in that industry since. “I worked in Limerick, then moved…
Mary Watson
Always a prolific reader, Mary wrote and illustrated her first book, aged five. She loved learning, and adored life at university. Studying Creative Writing in South Africa, under the tutelage of Andre Brink, she wrote a…
Patricia Gibney
Patricia’s first ambition was to be a journalist, but after school, she went into the civil service. “I started in the postal section of children’s allowance during Ireland’s longest postal strike in 1979. After three months…
Norma MacMaster
Norma sent her first story to RTE when she was 8. They sent it back saying there was a flaw in the plot. Her parents wanted her to become a pharmacist, and work in the family…
Patrick Chapman
Patrick’s writing life started at age 6, with comics. Then he started writing adventure stories. After college, he worked in advertising, for various companies, covering accounts such as Aer Lingus, An Post, and Guinness. “I worked…