IVY BANNISTER

Ivy Bannister’s memoir, Blunt Trauma, has been published in both Ireland and Canada. She is also the author of Magician, a book of short stories, and Vinegar and Spit, a poetry collection. She has contributed extensively to radio: plays, stories and prepared scripts (fifty Sunday Miscellanies!); and her stage plays have been performed in Ireland, Northern Ireland and Germany. Her awards include the Francis MacManus and Hennessy awards, the O.Z. Whitehead, Best Play Listowel and Mobil Ireland playwrighting awards, and the Kent and Sussex Poetry, and Best Collection Listowel awards. Her home has been in Dublin since 1970; at present, she divides her time between there and her birthplace, New York.

ADAM WYETH

Adam Wyeth is a prize winner of The Fish International Poetry Competition, (2009) and a runner-up of The Arvon International Poetry Competition, 2006. His poems have been anthologized in The Best of Irish Poetry anthology 2010, Landing Places (2010), Something Beginning with P, The Arvon 25th Anniversary Anthology and The Fish Anthology. His work has appeared in numerous literary journals. His new collection Silent Music is being published with Salmon Poetry in 2011.

OISIN McGANN

Born in Dublin in 1973, Oisín McGann works full time as an author and illustrator. He has written and illustrated numerous books for young children, including the Mad Grandad series, The Forbidden Files series, and two short retellings of Irish legends

NIAMH GRIFFIN

Niamh Griffin is a freelance feature writer who started a blog because everyone had one. But it didn’t take long to realise that print and online publishing are two different worlds. Luckily she worked it out and now writes an Inspiring Sports Women blog. She also blogs for businesses to help them create their own voice. She keeps her online voice in shape, while writing travel and fitness articles for Ask Men and Transitions Abroad.

GERALDINE MILLS

Geraldine Mills is an award winning poet and short story writer and has been published nationally and internationally. She has published three collections of poetry and two of short stories ‘Lick of the Lizard’, (2005) and ‘The Weight of Feathers’, 2007 (Arlen House) which are taught at the University of Connecticut and Eastern Connecticut State University, USA. She was winner of the Inaugural Penguin/ RTÉ Short Story Competition, 2010. Other awards for fiction include the Moore Medallion, The OKI Award and she has been shortlisted for the Francis MacManus Competition and William Trevor Short Story Award. She was a recipient of an Arts Council Bursary in 2006 and was awarded a Patrick and Katherine Kavanagh Fellowship, Oct 2007. Geraldine was the millennium winner of the Hennessy/Tribune New Irish Writer Award for her short story ‘Lick of the Lizard’ and has taught creative writing in Ireland and the US.

ANNE BARRETT

Anne Barrett a County Clare born writer had her first film, Spring Cleaning produced by RTE & Channel 4 in 1986. It received two international film awards, including a Special Juror’s Award at the Cork film festival and was distributed in Scandanavia and mainland Europe. According to historian Richard Pine, it was unique in that it was the first ever non-commissioned drama produced by RTE. Anne has received film funding from the European Union, Irish film board and been the recipient of numerous Irish Arts awards. Anne has also taught screenwriting at Ballyfermot Snr. College. She has worked on a number of commissioned film scripts, including some for the U.S. market and some for children’s TV.

Her short stories were published in New Irish Writing, Tracks and Scorched Earth. Anne has also had several stories and plays produced by RTE & BBC Radio. She has had two stage plays produced, Shadowtackle and Chambers and more on this writer can be found on Irish playography and film sites or on irishwriters-online.com and munsterlit.ie

AFRIC McGLINCHEY

Afric McGlinchey is this year’s Hennessy award winner for Emerging Poetry. She has been facilitating creative writing workshops over the last ten years. Her students have included adults, gifted children, UCC Freshers, Ballymaloe Cookery School students, VEC students, multiple sclerosis patients, beginners and published writers. Many of her students have gone on to win awards. She has been published in a number of journals, including Poetry Ireland Review, Acumen (UK), the SHOp, Southword, Revival, Tears in the Fence (UK), and Scottish Poetry Review. Afric is also a regular book reviewer for the Irish Examiner and a filter reader for the Fish Short Story competition. For more about Afric’s work, see her website: www.africmcglinchey.com