Writers Biographies
Anna Carey is a journalist and author from Dublin who has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent and many other publications. Anna’s first book, The Real Rebecca, was published in 2011, and went on to win the Senior Children’s Book prize at the Irish Book Awards. Rebecca returned in the critically acclaimed Rebecca’s Rules, Rebecca Rocks and Rebecca is Always Right. The Making of Mollie(2016) was her first historical novel and was shortlisted for the Senior Children’s Book prize at the 2016 Irish Book Awards.
Colm Keegan is a writer and performance poet from Dublin. He has been shortlisted four times for the Hennessy New Irish Writing Award, for both poetry and fiction and won the All Ireland Poetry Slam in 2010. In 2015 he was awarded a residency in the DLR Lexicon. He is a creative writing teacher and co-founder of the Inklinks Project, a creative writing initiative for young writers. In 2011, he was nominated for the Dublin Fringe's 'Little Gem' Award for the spoken word play he co-wrote with Stephen James Smith and Kalle Ryan - Three Men Talking About Things They Kinda Know About. His debut collection, Don’t Go There, was released in 2012 to critical acclaim.
Sarah Maria Griffin is a writer from Dublin who lives in a small red brick house by the sea, with her husband and cat. She writes about monsters, growing up, and everything those two things have in common. Her nonfiction collection of essays, Not Lost, was published by New Island in 2013. Her first novel, Spare and Found Parts, was released from Greenwillow Books (an imprint of Harper Collins) in Autumn 2016. She co-hosts the podcast Juvenalia, writes sporadically for The Irish Times, and her essays have recently appeared in Guts and The Winter Pages. She was the recipient of the European Science Fiction Awards Chrysalis Award in 2017.
Tom Swift has worked as a playwright and screenwriter since 2002 often with The Performance Corporation, which has produced many of his plays including Candide (Best Production, Dublin Fringe Festival 2002) and The Butterfly Ranch (Stewart Parker Trust nominee 2004). In 2005 he wrote Paka for The Amani People’s Theatre, Kenya which was staged in Nairobi and Mombassa. Recent work includes the live-text multidisciplinary performance Cool Fresh Milk in Berlin’s Electronic Church and Darklight Festival Dublin, the award-winning The Nose at Project Arts Centre and Beware of the Storybook Wolves for the Ark. Tom’s short play The Other Woman was winner of the 2006 Irish Times Theatre Awards Judges’ Prize. Current work includes commissions from The Abbey Theatre and The National Association for Youth Drama.