Tony Doherty
When he was ten years old, Tony wrote a story that won his family’s respect. He became a voracious reader as a teenager, loving the books of Walter Macken. In the early nineties, Tony was instrumental […]
Shirley-Anne McMillan
Shirley-Anne started writing as a teenager, penning song lyrics and poetry. And when she became a teacher, working in Integrated Schools, she turned her hand to children’s stories and picture books. But her debut is YA […]
Colette Dartford
Raised in London by Irish parents, Colette spent all her childhood holidays in County Wexford. After taking her primary degree Colette worked, but stopped when she had her daughter, at 25. Later, after her return to […]
Cat Hogan
Cat has always loved books. And, when she was a child, her imagination was stirred by her father. “He had worked in the Merchant Navy, and then he joined Irish Lights. He would tell the four […]
Geraldine Mills
Geraldine has always enjoyed painting pictures with words. One of ten children, she had a rural upbringing. “I spent most of my childhood playing in the woods. It’s made me aware of nature, and how to […]
Alice Carey
Brought up in New York to Irish parents, Alice was an only child with an abusive father. Lonely, she started writing diaries when she was 10. After university Alice became an actress, mostly in fringe theatre, […]
Felicity Hayes – McCoy.
Felicity’s father was a historian and a writer – and an avid second hand book buyer, so she read widely as a child. “He was always coming home with a book for me. I was the […]
Christine Hamill
After University Christine wrote poetry, but she never published any. She had various jobs; she worked in the Arts in Bristol; she managed an Art Gallery, worked on an Arts Magazine, and wrote a grammar for […]
Catherine Banner
Catherine Banner started her first novel when she was 14. And when, later, she attended a talk on writing, and showed her work to an agent, he found a publisher for it. Attending Cambridge, she wrote […]
Roisin O’Donnell
Brought up in England to Northern Irish parents, Roisín has always felt a sense of dislocation. A writer since she was small, she had completed three novels by the time she was 24. “I wrote the […]
Sam Blake
Sam Blake is the pen name of Vanessa Fox O’Loughlin. Vanessa always worked – right through school and university, and after college she worked in retail in London, and then in shopping centre marketing. “It was […]
Conor O’Callaghan
From a non cultural background, Conor wrote, secretively, in his teens. “When I published my first book of poetry at 24, it came as a shock to my brothers.” After dropping out of College Conor did […]