Peter Hollywood was twenty-one when his first short story ‘The Accident’ was accepted by the famed editor David Marcus for his New Irish Writing page in the Irish Press. The story was short-listed for that year’s Hennessy literary prize. Marcus went on to include another story, ‘The Dog’, in the anthology State of the Art: Short Stories by New Irish Writers (Hodder and Stoughton, 1992) which included stories by such acclaimed writers as Anne Enright, Maeve Binchy and John Banville. Peter Hollywood is the author of Jane Alley, Pretani Press (1987); Lead City and Other Stories, Lagan Press (2002); Luggage – a novel, Lagan Press (2008); Hawks and Other Short Stories (2013) Drowning the Gowns – a Novel (2016) both published by New Island Books, and The Welcome Centre (December 2022), Arlen House. His stories have appeared in numerous journals, and he has had stories represented in three further anthologies: 'Krino - An Anthology of Modern Irish Writing' edited by Gerald Dawe and Jonathan Williams, published by Gill and MacMillan; Belfast Stories, Doire Press and The New Frontier: Contemporary Writing From & About the Irish Border, New Island Books. In September 2021, he had a specially commissioned story broadcast in the ‘Short Works’ series on BBC Radio 4. Peter was recently the Royal Literary Fund Writing Fellow in Seamus Heaney Centre, QUB. His new collection of stories, The Welcome Centre (Arlen House) was launched 26th of January 2023 in QUB. The story ‘Punished by Appointment’ was on the long list for An Post Short Story of the Year.