Sue Leonard

Audrey Magee simply has to write. It’s as essential to her, as breathing. It’s through writing that she works out what she thinks about the world and explores its many complexities. She conveys and illustrates these […]

Books formed a huge part of Sophie’s childhood. “My Mum was always writing,” says Sophie. “She was never published but she always encouraged me. I felt writing was possible.”   Sophie started writing in the final […]

When David Butler met Tanya Farrelly back in 2014, the writers hit it off at once. Within a month the friends became a couple and, shortly afterwards, Tanya moved into David seafront home in Bray. Two […]

After moving from California to Texas, Connecticut and Missouri, the teenage Alison lived in Seattle. After university, she worked there for Microsoft, before moving to New York to take an MA.             “Then I moved back […]

Louise Phillips has always wanted to write. And she started in her early twenties, when, having left school to start work at 15, she returned to education. She adored the craft, but before she’d had any […]

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 […]

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 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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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’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 […]