Joanna Fortune
From the time she was gifted a Petite typewriters as a child, Joanna has enjoyed writing. “I said I would be a writer or a journalist, but I became more interested in the psychological area. However,…
Sinead Burke
A little person, Sinead has always received wonderful support from her family – they always said that there was nothing she could not do. And as a child, she always wanted to teach, but was also…
Oein DeBhairduin.
A traveller, storytelling is part of Oein’s culture. He told his first, aged seven. He’s a big reader too. “In my childhood there were books everywhere,” he says. “When I moved to Dublin, I got a…
Nydia Hetherington
An imaginative child, Nydia was unhappy at school. “I found it humiliating,” she says. “All I wanted to do was sit in my bedroom and listen to David Bowie. I found my diaries recently, and didn’t…
Sarah Moss
It all started on holiday in Scotland. Having been born in Glasgow, and, according to family legend learned to walk on the shores of Lough Lomond, Sarah Moss decided to return there, and experience a beautiful…
Bebe Ashley
Bebe had always written, and although she didn’t consciously decide to write poetry, it’s the form she’s always loved. “I’m interested in language and in what poetry can do,” she says. English, and brought up in…
Angela Graham
Angela has always loved words. She read Chamber’s Dictionary from cover to cover as a child, and had her first poem published aged 7. “My parents were poor, but they made good use of the library….
Review. Dermot Bolger
I first became aware of Dermot Bolger in 2000, when I read his seventh novel, Temptation. I was blown away; marvelling at Bolger’s ability to get into the mind of a woman so well. In that,…
Doireann Ni Ghriofa
There’s something other worldly about Doireann Ní Ghríofa. Exuding warmth and empathy, she speaks as she writes – fast and fluently, and there’s a natural lyricism there. She’s also quite disarming honest. Highly renowned in the…
Patrick Freyne
Patrick wrote songs as a teenager, but didn’t get down to writing prose until his twenties. His energies, at the time, were focused on his band. “I was doing other jobs – including bits of journalism,”…
Adrian McKinty
When Adrian McKinty won The Theakston Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year award recently, he was overwhelmed. The Northern Irish author is no stranger to prizes; his wins include The Edgar Award, the Ned Kelly…
Jean Kyoung Frazier
Jean’s mum immigrated from Korea to the US at 17, and while she spoke English pretty flawlessly, she found reading harder.“She bought me as many books as I wanted,” says Jean. “It brought her a lot…