Catherine Ann Cullen

Born in Dublin in 1939, Neville Keery’s vocation as a poet was first expressed in verses emerging during a visit to Venice in 1993. Turnings, a first selection of his poems, was published in 1999. After a career spent largely in Brussels, he returned to Dublin as a writer in 2001. One of his poems ... (more)won the 2003 Francis Ledwidge Award and he was selected to read work in the 2005 Poetry Ireland Introductions Series. His keen visual appreciation and good humour are never far away and he is currently interested in the haiku form and in the relationships between poetry and film images. Neville Keery's latest collection that includes haiku, HOME (poems 1999-2006), was published in 2007 by Hinds Publishing and The Blackrock Society. Catherine Ann Cullen was born in Drogheda, Co Louth. She is a graduate of the M.Phil in Creative Writing at Trinity College Dublin. Her work has been published in The Doghouse Book of Ballad Poems, two Sunday Miscellany collections, The Stinging Fly, College Green and The Sunday Tribune. She is a regular contributor to RTÉ Radio One's Sunday Miscellany and A Living Word, and has presented work at the Kilkenny Arts Festival, the Brendan Kennelly Summer School, the Poetry Ireland Introductions Series, the Between the Lines Festival, and Belfast Young at Arts. Two verse-stories for children, The Magical, Mystical, Marvelous Coat (2001) and Thirsty Baby (2003) have been published by Little, Brown in the US. They first won a gold award for Poetry and Folklore from the American Parents Association. She has also written two stories for the RTÉ series Fiction 15, and one for the collection Stories for Jamie (Blackwater Press, 2002). Her animation work includes a bawdy verse-script for Rowlandson Rides Again (Moving Still, 2006), an adult short on the 18th Century artist Thomas Rowlandson. She has made documentaries and a series about food for RTÉ Radio 1 and produced current affairs, arts and features. She lives with her partner Harry and daughter Stella in Kimmage, Dublin. A Bone in My Throat is her first collection of poetry.

Both Sides of the Pond Reading of Irish, American and Canadian writers, reading work from both sides of the pond, about both sides of the pond!! Some the featured American and Canadian writers will live in Ireland, many of the featured Irish writers will have lived in America. Readers are Californian ... (more)poet Lynne Knight, Dublin writer Oran Ryan, New Zealand born Dublin writer, Ross Hattaway, Canadian writer and model Roslyn Fuller, Dublin poet Eamonn Lynskey, Dublin poet Catherine Ann Cullen. Other names will be added to the list as they are confirmed. Lynne Knight: Lynne Knight is the author of four full-length collections, the most recent of which is Again, published by Sixteen Rivers Press in 2009. Dissolving Borders won a Quarterly Review of Literature prize in 1996; The Book of Common Betrayals won the Dorothy Brunsman Award from Bear Star Press in 2002; and Night in the Shape of a Mirror was published by David Robert Books in 2006. She has also published three prize-winning chapbooks, Deer in Berkeley (Sow’s Ear Press), Life as Weather (Two Rivers Review), and Defying the Flat Surface (The Ledge Press). A cycle of poems on Impressionist winter paintings, Snow Effects, appeared from Small Poetry Press as part of its Select Poets Series and has been translated into French by Nicole Courtet. Knight lives in Berkeley, California. Her work has appeared in a number of journals, including Beloit Poetry Journal, Kenyon Review, New England Review, Ontario Review, Poetry, and Southern Review. One of her poems appears in Best American Poetry 2000, selected by Rita Dove. Among her awards are the Theodore Roethke Award from Poetry Northwest, the Theodore Christian Hoepfner Award from Southern Humanities Review, the Lucille Medwick Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America, and an NEA grant. Oran Ryan Oran Ryan is Dublin novelist, playwright, poet and screenwriter. In 2008 he won an Arts Council Bursary award for his current project New Order from Zero. His published works are The Death of Finn and Ten Short Novels by Arthur Kruger. The Death of Finn concerns the sudden and untimely death of Joe Finn, a brilliant and eccentric young monk, and traces the impact of his death on the people around him, in particular his one-time best friend Frank, himself an ex-monk. The Death of Finn is a love story and a story of friendship. This beautifully written novel traces the relationship between Frank Ryan and Joe Finn, and the effect that this relationship, Finn's life and death has on Frank and on other people in their lives. It explores love and its absence as well as the power of institutions over individual relationships. Finn manages to be a truly Irish book while simultaneously evoking an internationally recognisable sense of place. It is also evocative of the past while being truly modern. Resplendent with beautiful one-liners and carefully drawn characters, it is sure to become and to remain one of the classics of Irish literature as Oran Ryan will become and remain on of its voices. Underlying the main text of The Death of Finn is a sub-text concerning a book, Giovanni Seipi at Home that the main character of the novel, Joe Finn, has himself written. In a unique venture, Seven Towers Ltd has produced a miniature version of extracts from this book to accompany the publication of The Death of Finn, Extracts from "Giovanni Seipi at Home". This miniature book is in the form of an academic biography and is written in the voice of Joe Finn. "Oran is a new and powerful voice in Irish literature". Seamus Cashman Seamus also praised The Death of Finn for "the fine detail of the writing, and the clarity and simplicity of expression and phraseology" and described it as "a serious and entertaining and perceptive novel of relationships and ideas and a book which will hold readers enthralled and awakened as they journey through it". "Ryan brings a self-assured tone to this his debut novel" Sunday Tribune "The Death of Finn succeeds well as a study of the search for faith and the inner workings of monasticism as seen from the Irish Catholic viewpoint, while also addressing the question of honesty with self and with others" Book View Ireland, Irish Emigrant (www.emigrant.ie). Ten Short Novels by Arthur Kruger is Oran Ryan's second novel. This novel circumvents the natural order of novel writing as it is written in a cubistic format and the series of short novels contained within the novel are written by the hero of the novel himself, rather than the real-life author. Each chapter takes a different life, giving ten different perspectives on Arthur Kruger, some as lived by Kruger after he kills himself and inexplicably finds himself alive after being hit by a train. Exploring themes like life, love and the after-life, Kruger, as the author, challenges the reader to question their understanding of existence. Ten Short Novels can be read as a possible journey into a mind in the grip of a breakdown or the fictional autobiography of a man who kills himself and inexplicably finds himself still alive. Whichever way the reader experiences it, living life will never be the same again after reading Ten Short Novels by Arthur Kruger. Writer and actor Frank Kelly, who launched the novel, described it as a stimulating, enjoyable and challenging novel "that made me chuckle with its wry Beckett-like humour." Ross Hattaway Ross Hattaway's first collection of poetry, The Gentle Art of Rotting, is a collection of 'High Country' poetry, reflecting the dichotomy of the New Zealand High Country where starkness and beauty, economy and expression, machismo and inner sensitivity exist in a symbiotic yet sometimes uneasy relationship. Moving and humorous, these arresting poems reflect the origins and upbringing of the poet and the psychic landscape of New Zealand. Beneath the spare, crystalline phrasing and economic use of language, Ross' poems hold a wealth of meaning and poignancy and reflect the experience of many men who are forced to trade their inner sensitivity for survival in a world of macho values. The poems come out of Ross' own personal experience growing up in New Zealand where, for instance, he bought his country music albums in secret in brown paper bags, lest his contemporaries realise what he was purchasing! Ross Hattaway was born in New Zealand and has lived in Ireland since 1990. He has published poetry in periodicals and collections, including Writings (Wellington), Life Beyond the Louvres (Northern Territory Anthology), Poetry Australia. His readings include the Poetry Ireland Introduction Series, Anna Livia FM and Between the Lines (Belfast). The Gentle Art of Rotting is his first collection. In 2008 Ross was a guest at the Poetry Spring Festival in Lithuania, becoming the first Irish poet to guest at that festival. Part of The Gentle Art of Rotting was translated into Lithuanian and published as part of the festival celebration. An employee of the Department of Health and Children, he is currently on secondment to the HSE. "An exciting new collection of poetry" Sunday Independent Roslyn Fuller Roslyn Fuller was born and raised in Ontario, Canada. As a teenager she moved to Germany where she studied law at the prestigious Georg-August-Universitaet in Goettingen. After passing the First Bar Exam, she took a position at the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Dublin, and a post as a PhD student at Trinity College. She continues to live in Dublin and in addition to her studies she also works as a model. She self-published her first book, ISAK, in 2005 which has sold hundreds of copies around the world. She is currently working on her second novel, Frustration of a Line. In addition she writes a substantial amount of legal non-fiction and has had articles published in major legal journals. She also gives seminars in public international law at Trinity College. Roslyn co-founded the Irish Writers’ Exchange in 2008 and currently contributes to a weekly book review column in Metro Eireann. Eamonn Lynskey Éamonn Lynskey has had poems published in many magazines. He was nominated for the Sunday Tribune/Hennessy Literary Award for New Irish Poetry in 2006 and one of his poems will feature on the 2009 OXFAM calendar. His first collection Dispatches and Recollections was published in 1998 and he is currently working on his second. Eamonn’s work is also featured in Census, The First Seven Towers Anthology. Eamonn has also translated works of Italian poets Montale and Valeri and written in Italian – he holds a Diploma in Italian Lauguage and Culture from the Italian Institute, Dublin. His nest collection And Suddenly the Sun Again will be published by Seven Towers in Winter 2009/2010. Catherine Ann Cullen Catherine Ann Cullen was born in Drogheda, Co Louth. She is a regular contributor to RTE Radio 1’s Sunday Miscellany and A Living Word as well as producing current affairs, arts and features. She lives with her partner Harry and daughter Stella in Kimmage, Dublin. Her first collection, A Bone in My Throat, is published by Doghouse. Barbara Smith: Barbara is an essayist, artist poet and teacher, originally from Armagh in Northern Ireland she now lives in Dundalk. Her critically acclaimed collection Kairos was published by Doghouse in 2007 and she is currently working on her second collection. Celeste Auge Celeste Auge was born in Canada and grew up between Canada and Galway, Ireland. She published a chapbook with lapwing in 2007 and her first full collection has just been published by Salmon Books. Anamaria Crowe Serrano Anamaria is a poet and translator, she has published a number of book, including translations and non fiction. Her first full length collection of her own work is her latest publication and is called Femispheres. Seamus Cashman comes from Conna in County Cork. He founded Wolfhound Press,the leading Irish literary and cultural publishing house, in Dublin in 1974, and was publisher there until 2001. He had two well received poetry collections published, Carnival (Monarchline, 1988) and Clowns & Acrobats (Wolfhound Press, 2000) and his third collection, That Morning will Come: New and Selected Poems has just been published by Salmon.

Monthly themed reading - the theme this month is 'Sunshine and all readers read fro their using the theme as a guide!

Seven Towers Themed Reading to celebrate Bloomsday

As a sports columnist for a Dublin daily, Eamon Carr watched the unfolding drama of the 2002 World Cup finals firsthand in Japan. Against the intense public spectacle of media attention following the controversial departure of Ireland captain Roy Keane, Carr followed his own private journey - a lifelong ... (more)quest to visit the shrines and places of the famed poet Matsuo Basho, recognized master of haiku. In a volume of spare, elegant prose poetry and his own haiku chronicling impressions and revelations of that journey, Carr explores the deep interrelationships found within the contrasts of ancient and modern, nation and individual, crowd and solitude, loss and victory in a work that is at once a poetry collection, a travel journal and a sports commentary – with a little music as well. This is Eamon Carr's first collection of poetry and the profundity and depth of the work is a just reward for the long wait. This is an exciting book because of the beauty of the work itself, and its significance as another
important milestone in the work of a great artist and a man who truly has the soul of a poet. The book is part poetry collection, part travel log and part Eamon's commentary and insight into the Roy Keane/Mick McCarthy 'debacle'. And some of our current heroes (Robbie Keane, Damien Duff and Shay Given) are in there as well!!

The book has already been receiving a lot of publicity - Herald, Independent, Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, Sunday Tribune, Newstalk, Mooney (RTE Radio 1). There are some further TV and radio appearances as well as magazine and newspaper features and all this before most reviews are in !! John Waters has said about the book that "I can't praise it enough". He has also said he want to start a campaign to put the book at the top of the best seller list!!

Eamon Carr is a significant figure in the Irish artistic and cultural scene for many years. In the late 1960s he co-founded Tara Telephone, the music and poetry group of the Dublin beat scene. Tara Telephone published everyone from Marc Bolan to Allan Ginsberg, Brian Patten, Seamus Heaney, Pearse Hutchinson, Eilean Ni Chuilleanain, Brendan Kennelly, Adrian Mitchell, Pete Brown in their magazines and broadsheets. And among those who read with Tara Telephone, in addition to Eamon and Peter Fallon were Philip Lynott and Roger McGough. Following on from Tara Telephone, in the 1970's Eamon co-founded Horslips, the hugely influential band which is credited with creating the musical genre known as Celtic Rock, and in which he is also a drummer, conceptualist and lyricist. Eamon has also promoted musicians and artists, and works as a journalist, writer and commentator on culture, politics, arts, music and sport as well as an award winning broadcaster. He was born in Co. Meath and lives in Dublin.
"I can't praise it enough. I would like to start a campaign to put this on the top of the best seller list - where Eamon Carr belongs" John Waters
"It's great" Stuart Clarke, Hot Press
"witty and very readable tome." Eugene Masterson, The Sunday World

Steve Conway:
Dublin based Steve Conway is currently a DJ on Phantom 105.2FM and a former stalwart of that epic journey on that Good Ship that housed Radio Caroline. The Seven Towers Agency has signed to representing Steve for his wonderful memoir of his time on Radio Caroline. Steve's memoir gives us a behind the scene, fly on the wall look at the piece of cultural and broadcasting history that is Radio Caroline on its stormy journey through the 1980s until it ran aground at the end of that decade.

Catherine Ann Cullen was born in Drogheda, Co Louth. She is a regular contributor to RTE Radio 1’s Sunday Miscellany and A Living Word as well as producing current affairs, arts and features. She lives with her partner Harry and daughter Stella in Kimmage, Dublin. Her first collection, A Bone in My Throat, is published by Doghouse.

Ross Hattaway's first collection of poetry is a collection of 'High Country' poetry, reflecting the dichotomy of the New Zealand High Country where starkness and beauty, economy and expression, machismo and inner sensitivity exist in a symbiotic yet sometimes uneasy relationship. Moving and humorous, these arresting poems reflect the origins and upbringing of the poet and the psychic landscape of New Zealand. Beneath the spare, crystalline phrasing and economic use of language, Ross' poems hold a wealth of meaning and poignancy and reflect the experience of many men who are forced to trade their inner sensitivity for survival in a world of macho values. The poems come out of Ross' own personal experience growing up in New Zealand where, for instance, he bought his country music albums in secret in brown paper bags, lest his contemporaries realise what he was purchasing!

Ross Hattaway was born in New Zealand and has lived in Ireland since 1990. He has published poetry in periodicals and collections, including Writings (Wellington), Life Beyond the Louvres (Northern Territory Anthology), Poetry Australia. His readings include the Poetry Ireland Introduction Series, Anna Livia FM and Between the Lines (Belfast). The Gentle Art of Rotting is his first collection. In 2008 Ross was a guest at the Poetry Spring Festival in Lithuania, becoming the first Irish poet to guest at that festival. Part of The Gentle Art of Rotting was translated into Lithuanian and published as part of the festival celebration.

"An exciting new collection of poetry" Sunday Independent

Eamon Lynskey has had poems published in many magazines. He was nominated for the Sunday Tribune/Hennessy Literary Award for New Irish Poetry in 2006 and one of his poems will feature on the 2009 OXFAM calendar. His first collection Dispatches and Recollections was published in 1998 and he is currently working onhis second. As well as writing in English, Eamonn has also translated works of Italian poets Montale and Valeri and written in Italian – he holds, (among other qualifications!) a Diploma in Italian Lauguage and Culture from the Italian Institute, Dublin.

Dónal Moloney was born in 1976 and comes from Waterford. He has been writing seriously for ten years, during which time he has written a novel, several novellas and many short stories and poems. He is currently completing a collection of three novellas. He works as a freelance translator and lives in Dublin. He is a regular featured reader at both Chapters and Verse Reading Series and The Last Wednesday Reading and Open Mic Series. Donal is represented by The Seven Towers Agency.

Noel Ó Briain was born in Kerry, grew up in Dublin and now lives in Camolin, Wexford. He is a playwright and poet and a former head of drama at RTE. He has worked for many years in theatre, radio and television as an actor, producer/director, designer and script editor. into English as The Hostage and staged at The Royal Theatre Stratford by Joan Littlewood. He has produced and directed many plays in the Damer Hall under the auspices of Gael Linn. Among others these included Gunna Cam agus Slabhra Óir by Seán Ó Tuama and Aggiornamento by Chriostóir Ó Floinn. He also designed the sets for these and many other productions. He has directed Ulick O'Connor's Noh Plays at The Project. As a Radio Producer his drama productions have been selected as RTE's entries for the Prix Italia. He has won a National Jacob's Award for his production and adaptation of Seán Ó Tuama's Judas Iscariot agus a Bhean. He has worked as Producer, Director, Series Producer and Script Editor in numerous television one-offs, series and serial drama, often combining several of these skills in one production. These have included The Riordans, Bracken (which launched the career of Gabriel Byrne) Glenroe and Ros na Rún among many others. He also produced and directed the controversial series The Spike until it was withdrawn by RTE itself after complaints from the League of Decency and State interference. He has participated in a documentary in the Scannal series on RTE which deals with well known Irish scandals – including The Spike! (to be transmitted in Autumn 2008). He has won the Celtic Film Festival Drama Award for his production of Tom Murphy's screenplay, Brigit. His poetry and short stories have been published in a number of literary magazines including The Kilkenny Magazine and Poetry Ireland. They have also been broadcast on radio in the short story slot and on Sunday Miscellany. Noel has completed Land of She a hilarious adapted for theatre translation of Brian Merriman's Cuirt on Mhean Oiche written for five parts. He has also completed a short verse play inspired by Synge's Deirdre of The Sorrows, entitled Áinle and Árdán Are Already Dead.

Writer, actor, artist and activist Gerard Mannix Flynn said of Scattering Day, that "We are lucky today to have such a collection of work at our disposal. The poems are prayers, meditations for the every moment. I always think that when you pick up a poem to read it you're accepting help in your struggle in life. Make sure that when you reach out that one of Noel Ó Briain's poems is within reach"

Oran Ryan is Dublin novelist, playwright, poet and screenwriter. In 2008 he won an Arts Council Bursary award for his current project New Order from Zero.
Oran's first published novel, The Death of Finn concerns the sudden and untimely death of Joe Finn, a brilliant and eccentric young monk, and traces the impact of his death on the people around him, in particular his one-time best friend Frank, himself an ex-monk. The Death of Finn is a love story and a story of friendship. This beautifully written novel traces the relationship between Frank Ryan and Joe Finn, and the effect that this relationship, Finn's life and death has on Frank and on other people in their lives. It explores love and its absence as well as the power of institutions over individual relationships. Finn manages to be a truly Irish book while simultaneously evoking an internationally recognisable sense of place. It is also evocative of the past while being truly modern. Resplendent with beautiful one-liners and carefully drawn characters, it is sure to become and to remain one of the classics of Irish literature as Oran Ryan will become and remain on of its voices. Underlying the main text of The Death of Finn is a sub-text concerning a book, Giovanni Seipi at Home that the main character of the novel, Joe Finn, has himself written. In a unique venture, Seven Towers Ltd has produced a miniature version of extracts from this book to accompany the publication of The Death of Finn, Extracts from "Giovanni Seipi at Home". This miniature book is in the form of an academic biography and is written in the voice of Joe Finn.
"Oran is a new and powerful voice in Irish literature". Seamus Cashman
Seamus also praised The Death of Finn for "the fine detail of the writing, and the clarity and simplicity of expression and phraseology" and described it as "a serious and entertaining and perceptive novel of relationships and ideas and a book which will hold readers enthralled and awakened as they journey through it".
"Ryan brings a self-assured tone to this his debut novel" Sunday Tribune
"The Death of Finn succeeds well as a study of the search for faith and the inner workings of monasticism as seen from the Irish Catholic viewpoint, while also addressing the question of honesty with self and with others" Book View Ireland, Irish Emigrant (www.emigrant.ie).
Ten Short Novels by Arthur Kruger is Oran Ryan's second novel. This novel circumvents the natural order of novel writing as it is written in a cubistic format and the series of short novels contained within the novel are written by the hero of the novel himself, rather than the real-life author. Each chapter takes a different life, giving ten different perspectives on Arthur Kruger, some as lived by Kruger after he kills himself and inexplicably finds himself alive after being hit by a train. Exploring themes like life, love and the after-life, Kruger, as the author, challenges the reader to question their understanding of existence. Ten Short Novels can be read as a possible journey into a mind in the grip of a breakdown or the fictional autobiography of a man who kills himself and inexplicably finds himself still alive. Whichever way the reader experiences it, living life will never be the same again after reading Ten Short Novels by Arthur Kruger.
Writer and actor Frank Kelly, who launched the novel, described it as a stimulating, enjoyable and challenging novel "that made me chuckle with its wry Beckett-like humour."

Barbara Smith holds a BA Hons. Literature just completed, 2007; and will continue with Queen's University Belfast, with a MA in Creative Writing. Her debut collection of poetry, Kairos, is just published by Doghouse Books. She has poetry and essays published widely and lives in Dundalk, with her partner and six children. Other publications include Poetic Stage (1998).Barbara blogs at http://intendednot2b.blogspot.com/

Doog Wood:
Doog Wood is a Dublin based poet from North Carolina. His poetry has been widely published in journals and anthologies. His first full collection will be published by The Seven Towers Agency in 2009.

Catherine Ann Cullen was born in Drogheda, Co Louth. She is a regular contributor to RTE Radio 1’s Sunday Miscellany and A Living Word as well as producing current affairs, arts and features. She lives with her partner Harry and daughter Stella in Kimmage, Dublin. Her first collection, A Bone in My ... (more)Throat, is published by Doghouse.

Liam Aungier is a poet from Kildare. Twice runner up in the Patrick Kavanagh poetry competition, his debut collection Apples in Winter was published by Doghouse.

Steve Conway:
Dublin based Steve Conway is currently a DJ on Phantom 105.2FM and a former stalwart of that epic journey on that ... (more)Good Ship that housed Radio Caroline. The Seven Towers Agency has signed to representing Steve for his wonderful memoir of his time on Radio Caroline. Steve's memoir gives us a behind the scene, fly on the wall look at the piece of cultural and broadcasting history that is Radio Caroline on its stormy journey through the 1980s until it ran aground at the end of that decade.

Catherine Ann Cullen was born in Drogheda, Co Louth. She is a regular contributor to RTE Radio 1’s Sunday Miscellany and A Living Word as well as producing current affairs, arts and features. She lives with her partner Harry and daughter Stella in Kimmage, Dublin. Her first collection, A Bone in My Throat, is published by Doghouse.

Arts administrator and part-time lecturer, Alan Garvey's work has been published in various magazines and anthologies. He has read in the University of Toronto and at the March Hare Festival, Newfoundland, courtesy of the Arts Council. He lives in Carlow with his wife, Tara and son, Keir. His first full collection, Herself in Air (2006), was published by Lapwing Publications, Belfast. His second, Learning To Crawl (also on Lapwing) was released in the spring of 2008. Due to graduate from WIT's MA in Creative Writing programme this year.

Ross Hattaway's first collection of poetry is a collection of 'High Country' poetry, reflecting the dichotomy of the New Zealand High Country where starkness and beauty, economy and expression, machismo and inner sensitivity exist in a symbiotic yet sometimes uneasy relationship. Moving and humorous, these arresting poems reflect the origins and upbringing of the poet and the psychic landscape of New Zealand. Beneath the spare, crystalline phrasing and economic use of language, Ross' poems hold a wealth of meaning and poignancy and reflect the experience of many men who are forced to trade their inner sensitivity for survival in a world of macho values. The poems come out of Ross' own personal experience growing up in New Zealand where, for instance, he bought his country music albums in secret in brown paper bags, lest his contemporaries realise what he was purchasing!

Ross Hattaway was born in New Zealand and has lived in Ireland since 1990. He has published poetry in periodicals and collections, including Writings (Wellington), Life Beyond the Louvres (Northern Territory Anthology), Poetry Australia. His readings include the Poetry Ireland Introduction Series, Anna Livia FM and Between the Lines (Belfast). The Gentle Art of Rotting is his first collection. In 2008 Ross was a guest at the Poetry Spring Festival in Lithuania, becoming the first Irish poet to guest at that festival. Part of The Gentle Art of Rotting was translated into Lithuanian and published as part of the festival celebration.

"An exciting new collection of poetry" Sunday Independent

Dublin poet Anne Morgan has had work in a number of anthologies – including Seven Towers forthcoming Census – and journals.

Noel Ó Briain was born in Kerry, grew up in Dublin and now lives in Camolin, Wexford. He is a playwright and poet and a former head of drama at RTE. He has worked for many years in theatre, radio and television as an actor, producer/director, designer and script editor. into English as The Hostage and staged at The Royal Theatre Stratford by Joan Littlewood. He has produced and directed many plays in the Damer Hall under the auspices of Gael Linn. Among others these included Gunna Cam agus Slabhra Óir by Seán Ó Tuama and Aggiornamento by Chriostóir Ó Floinn. He also designed the sets for these and many other productions. He has directed Ulick O'Connor's Noh Plays at The Project. As a Radio Producer his drama productions have been selected as RTE's entries for the Prix Italia. He has won a National Jacob's Award for his production and adaptation of Seán Ó Tuama's Judas Iscariot agus a Bhean. He has worked as Producer, Director, Series Producer and Script Editor in numerous television one-offs, series and serial drama, often combining several of these skills in one production. These have included The Riordans, Bracken (which launched the career of Gabriel Byrne) Glenroe and Ros na Rún among many others. He also produced and directed the controversial series The Spike until it was withdrawn by RTE itself after complaints from the League of Decency and State interference. He has participated in a documentary in the Scannal series on RTE which deals with well known Irish scandals – including The Spike! (to be transmitted in Autumn 2008). He has won the Celtic Film Festival Drama Award for his production of Tom Murphy's screenplay, Brigit. His poetry and short stories have been published in a number of literary magazines including The Kilkenny Magazine and Poetry Ireland. They have also been broadcast on radio in the short story slot and on Sunday Miscellany. Noel has completed Land of She a hilarious adapted for theatre translation of Brian Merriman's Cuirt on Mhean Oiche written for five parts. He has also completed a short verse play inspired by Synge's Deirdre of The Sorrows, entitled Áinle and Árdán Are Already Dead.

Writer, actor, artist and activist Gerard Mannix Flynn said of Scattering Day, that "We are lucky today to have such a collection of work at our disposal. The poems are prayers, meditations for the every moment. I always think that when you pick up a poem to read it you're accepting help in your struggle in life. Make sure that when you reach out that one of Noel Ó Briain's poems is within reach"

Doog Wood is a Dublin based poet from North Carolina. His poetry has been widely published in journals and anthologies. His first full collection will be published by The Seven Towers Agency in 2009.