Dermot Healy was born in Finea, County Westmeath, in 1947. His books include Banished Misfortune (stories), Fighting with Shadows, A Goat's Song and Sudden Times (novels) and The Bend for Home (memoir). A new novel, Long Time, No See, will be published next year.

He has written and directed plays, including The Long Swim, On Broken Wings and Mister Staines, and wrote the screenplay for Our Boys, directed by Cathal Black.

The Gallery Press has published his three previous collections of poems, The Ballyconnell Colours (1992), What the Hammer (1998) and The Reed Bed (2001).

A member of Aosdána, Dermot Healy lives in Ballyconnell, County Sligo.