Alan McMonagle is a writer based in Galway, Ireland. In November 2015 he signed a two-book deal with Picador. His debut novel, Ithaca, was published in March 2017, and was nominated for the Desmond Elliott Award for first novels and an Irish Book Award. He has received awards for his work from the Professional Artists’ Retreat in Yaddo (New York), the Fundación Valparaiso (Spain), the Banff Centre for Creativity (Canada) and the Arts Council of Ireland.

Lia Mills writes novels, short fiction, memoir and essays.  Her first novel, Another Alice, was nominated for the Irish Times Irish Fiction Prize. Nothing Simple was shortlisted for Irish Novel of the Year at the inaugural Irish Book Awards. Her memoir of an experience of oral cancer, In Your Face, was named as a favourite book of the year (2007) by several commentators. Her most recent novel, Fallen, was the Dublin/Belfast Two Cities One Book festival selection for 2016.

Author and journalist Martina Devlin has written 10 books. Her latest is Truth & Dare, a short story collection in which she brings to life some of the women who shaped Ireland – from Maud Gonne to Countess Markievicz to Hanna Sheehy Skeffington. Her novels include About Sisterland set in the future in a world ruled by women, The House Where It Happened about Ireland’s last witchcraft trial (optioned for film) and Ship of Dreams about the Titanic disaster, with which she has a family connection.

Poet and novelist Mary O’Donnell was born in County Monaghan and studied German and philosophy at National University of Ireland, Maynooth. O’Donnell is recognized as a leading figure in the generation of Irish women writers who began publishing in the 1980s and 1990s; her work is often cited as key in expanding the horizons of Ireland’s traditionally male-dominated literary world.

Terry McDonagh taught creative writing at Hamburg University and was Drama Director at the International School Hamburg. He has published ten poetry collections as well as letters, drama, prose and poetry for young people. His work has been translated into German and Indonesian, and has been published worldwide in anthologies and literary journals. He has read at and facilitated workshops in Europe, Asia and Australia. He was Artistic Director of WestWords, the first Irish literature festival in Hamburg in May 2017.

Anne Haverty's first novel One Day As A Tiger (1997) has been described variously as 'a brilliant depiction of rural life' (Literary Review), a 'work of rare enchantment' (Sunday Telegraph), 'brimming with confidence and originality' (New Statesman) and 'A work of heroic imagination, huge and Dostoevsian'.  A tragi-comedy about an unlikely sheep farmer and his love for a genetically modified lamb and for his brother's wife, it won the Rooney Prize and was shortlisted for the Whitbread (Costa).

'Songs of Joyce' is a musical extravaganza of songs drawn from the life and works of James Joyce, from bawdy street ballads and sea shanties to music hall hits and folksongs. Performed with gusto by Sinead Murphy and Darina Gallagher, this musical evocation of an era has been acclaimed by critics and academics alike, and to date has performed sell-out shows all over Ireland as well as Glasgow, Boston, New York and Moscow.

Rita Duffy was born in 1959 in Belfast. She received a B.A. at the Art & Design Centre and a M.A. in Fine Art at the University of Ulster. She is one of Northern Ireland's groundbreaking artists who began her work concentrating primarily on the figurative/narrative tradition. Her art is often autobiographical, including themes and images of Irish identity, history and politics. Duffy’s work has grown and evolved but remains intensely personal with overtones of the surreal.

Medbh McGuckian was born in 1950 to Catholic parents in Belfast, Ireland. She studied with Seamus Heaney at Queen’s University, earning a BA and MA, and later returned as the university’s first female writer-in-residence.