William Wall is the author of four novels, the most recent of which, This Is The Country, was nominated for the 2005 Man Booker prize, a collection of short fiction and three volumes of poetry. His most recent book is Ghost Estate (Salmon Poetry, Ireland, 2012). More info from his website www.williamwall.net. [Photo: Harry Moore]

Leona Lee Cully lives in Dublin but was born in the now defunct Canadian mining town of Uranium City, Saskatchewan, Canada which is kind of funny. Her obsessions with urban space, outsiders, the ills of capitalism, Walter Benjamin and Giorgio Agamben are not very funny. As a writer, Leona collaborates with art collective Edges & Margins in explorations of how we inhabit – or are inhabited by – urban space. ‘If a story of mine doesn’t provoke or move a reader in a visceral way then I have failed.’ She has had stories published here and there, details of which are available at leonaleecully.wordpress.com. Twitter @leonaleecully.

Cork born Kevin Doyle has published many short stories in both Ireland and the UK. As well as being an Ian St James Short Story Award winner and a Hennessy Prize nominee, he has had his work included in a number of anthologies including Irish Writers Against War. His edgy, humorous stories are most often set against a political landscape. He has written widely on anarchism and libertarian tradition and currently lives and teaches creative writing in his home town. He blogs at kfdoyle.wordpress.com.

Anamaría Crowe Serrano lives in Dublin where she works a poet, literary translator from Italian and Spanish, and teacher of Spanish language. She has published Femispheres (Shearsman, UK, 2008); a chapbook called one columbus leap (corrupt press, Paris, 2011); Mirabile Dictu (blurb, 2011), a poetry-art collaboration with artist Jordi Forniés; and is currently working on two further collaborations.

Kimberly Campanello was born in Elkhart, Indiana, and is now based in Dublin. Her chapbook Spinning Cities was published by Wurm Press in 2011, and her first full-length collection, Consent, was published by Doire Press in May. She recently performed her poems on the sheela-na-gig stone carvings in the National Concert Hall (Dublin), Kaleidoscope Night at the Odessa Club (Dublin), and at the Palau Maricel for Creative Connexions, an Irish/Catalan cultural festival. [Photo: Brian Kavanagh]

Sarah Clancy is the author of Stacey and the Mechanical Bull (Lapwing Press Belfast, 2010) and Thanks For Nothing, Hippies (Salmon Poetry, 2012). Her poems have been published in Revival Poetry Journal, The Stony Thursday Book, The Poetry Bus, Irish Left Review and in translation in Cuadrivio Magazine (Mexico). Winner of the Cúirt International Festival of Literature Grand Slam 2011, she has also performed at the Over the Edge, the Temple House Festival, Testify, Electric Picnic, O Bheal and the Irish Writers’ Centre.

Celeste Augé is the author of The Essential Guide to Flight (Salmon Poetry, 2009) and the short story collection Fireproof and Other Stories (Doire Press, 2012), which was longlisted for the 2013 Frank O’Connor Award. Her poetry has been shortlisted for a Hennessy Award, and she has received a Literature Bursary from the Arts Council of Ireland. In 2011, she won the Cúirt New Writing Prize for fiction. Celeste lives in Connemara, in the West of Ireland, and teaches creative writing to undergraduates at NUI Galway as well as in a community setting.

Cal Doyle’s poetry has appeared in a number of journals and anthologies, most recently in Southword and The Burning Bush 2. He has read as part of Poetry Ireland’s Introductions Series and is the poetry editor for wordlegs and The Weary Blues. He lives in Cork.

Philip Coleman’s poems have appeared recently in Cyphers and Icarus and he has work forthcoming in Poetry Ireland Review and can-can. He teaches American literature in the School of English, Trinity College Dublin. His book-length study of John Berryman will be published by UCD Press in 2014.

Dimitra Xidous’ work has appeared in various Irish and Canadian literary journals. She was a joint runner-up in the Heart in Mouth Competition (2013) and she was long-listed for the Montreal International Poetry Prize (2011). Her poetry has been featured on RTE Arena, and she has performed at a number of spoken word nights in Dublin, including Nighthawks and The Monday Echo.

Oisín Fagan (b. 1991) currently lives and works in Salou, Spain. He has been previously published in The Stinging Fly.

Liam Cagney comes from Donegal in the north-west of Ireland. As well as being a writer of fiction, he is a musicologist at City University London, where he is researching a history of French spectral music. He also writes music journalism for Sinfini and Opera Magazine.  He is also on twitter.com/LiamCagney.

Karl Parkinson‘s work has been published in many magazines and journals, including The Stinging Fly. His chapbook A Sacrament Of Song was published in 2010 by Wurm Press and his first collection, Litany Of The City and Other Poems, will be out soon from Wurm Press. He has performed in the Nuyorican Poets Cafe in New York City and in 2012 he performed at The March Hare Festival in Newfoundland, Canada. He won the Balcony TV award for the most entertaining video of the year in 2009.

Tara White is a Dublin based writer and English language teacher from Limerick, Ireland. She holds a degree in English Studies from Trinity College Dublin and will receive an MA in Creative Writing from University College Dublin this year. She was shortlisted for the Fish Short Story Prize 2012 and has been featured in Irish literary publications such as Outburst, The Bohemyth, Wordlegs, and The Caterpillar, as well as the upcoming Fault Lines Anthology of New Writing (e-book available in August). She is currently working on a novel.

Lissa Kiernan’s poems, essays, and reviews can be found in numerous journals and anthologies, and her work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. Founder and director of The Rooster Moans Poetry Cooperative, a provider of online workshops, Lissa currently makes her home in Brooklyn, New York. Visit lissakiernan.com for more.

Naomi Richards was born in the UK. She has taught English in Japan and now works in Auckland. In 2011 she graduated from Auckland University with a Masters degree in Creative Writing. Since then her short stories have appeared in New Zealand literary magazines such as takahe and in brief (in three different issues) and on Radio New Zealand. She works as a teacher of English as a foreign language. Occasionally she also runs creative writing workshops for young people. At present she is working on a novel and a collection of short stories. Naomi can be reached at connectingwriters@gmail.com.

Paula Cunningham lives in Belfast. She works part-time as a dentist. Her chapbook A Dog Called Chance was published by Smith/Doorstop in 1999. She has also written drama and short fiction. A short story appeared in Faber’s Best New Irish Short Stories 2004-2005. In 2011 she won the Hippocrates Poetry Prize; she placed third in the Ballymaloe International Poetry Competition in 2013. She currently holds an award from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. Her poetry collection Heimlich’s Manoeuvre is due from Smith/Doorstop this summer.

Rob Doyle was born in Dublin. He holds a first-class honours degree in Philosophy and an MPhil from Trinity College Dublin. His writing has appeared or is forthcoming in The Stinging Fly, The Dublin Review, The Moth, Bunker (Serbia), and elsewhere, and has been broadcast on Irish national radio. Having lived in South America, Asia, Sicily and San Francisco, he currently lives in London, where he teaches philosophy.

Graham Allen is Professor in English at University College, Cork, Ireland. He has published academic books on literary and cultural theory and on Romantic literature. He has published poetry in numerous journals and was the winner of the 2010 Listowel Poetry Prize. His epoem Holes by Graham Allen was first published by New Binary Press in 2012. His collection, The One That Got Away, was shortlisted for the 2012 Crashaw Prize and is to be published later in 2013.

Christodoulos Makris is a poet and editor. He was born in Nicosia, and has also lived in Manchester, London, and since 2001 in Dublin. His collections include Spitting Out the Mother Tongue (Wurm Press, 2011) and the artist’s book Muses Walk (2012). His short poetry-film Safe as Houses (2013) is forthcoming, and his work is included in a new anthology of contemporary European poetry to be published later this year in Zagreb. He represented Cyprus at Poetry Parnassus, part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad. More at yesbutisitpoetry.blogspot.com. Twitter: @c_makris

Susan Millar DuMars is originally from Philadelphia. She has published three collections of poetry, the most recent of which, The God Thing, is just published by Salmon Poetry.  Her first full collection of short stories, Lights in the Distance, was published by Doire Press in 2010. Kevin Higgins has published three collections of poetry and one collection of essays, Mentioning The War. His work features in the generation defining anthology Identity Parade: New British & Irish Poets (Bloodaxe, 2010). Together, Susan & Kevin co-organise Over The Edge.

Dave Lordan is the first writer to win his country’s three major prizes for young poets. He is a former holder of the Ireland Chair of Poetry Bursary Award and a previous winner of both the Patrick Kavanagh and Strong Awards for poetry. His collections are The Boy in The Ring (2007) and Invitation to a Sacrifice (2010), both published by Salmon Poetry (www.salmonpoetry.com); “Dr Essler’s Cocaine” will appear in his newest collection, First Book of Frags (2013, Wurm Press). His poems are regularly broadcast on Irish national radio and he reviews for many publications. He can be contacted at dlordan@hotmail.com.

Kalle Ryan is a writer & popular performance poet in the bubbling Dublin poetry scene. He curates & MCs one of Ireland’s most popular arts nights, The Brownbread Mixtape, and his plays & poetry have been published in the USA & Ireland. Kalle is also the award winning songwriter of the Irish Times alternative national anthem “My Blood is Boiling for Ireland”. His acclaimed spoken word show “Three Men Talking About Things They Kinda Know About” is currently touring Ireland. He lives in Dublin with his wife and two sons. [Photo: Jessica Ryan, Comfy Photography]

Abby Oliveira is a performance poet based in Derry. Co-founder of The Poetry Chicks, she was Belfast Poetry Slam champ in 2006, finalist in the BBC4 Slam 2009, finalist in the Glastonbury Festival Poetry Slam 2009, the Ulster Slam champ in 2010, finalist in All-Ireland Slam 2010, host of the ‘Poetry and Words’ venue at the Glastonbury Festival 2010, and organiser/host of the 2011 All-Ireland Poetry Slam final.  Look for her upcoming performances here.

Claire-Louise Bennett writes experimental fiction and creative non-fiction. She is putting together a book that charts the interplay between those two oblique territories. It is quite rural. It is also probably a very strange love letter. She has had work featured in many publications including The Stinging Fly, The Irish Times, and The White Review. She is also a recipient of a Literature Bursary from Ireland’s Arts Council. Recently she won The White Review’s inaugural short fiction prize; her story can be found here.

Sudeep Sen is widely recognised as a major new generation voice in world literature and ‘one of the finest younger English-language poets in the international literary scene’ (BBC Radio). Sen’s prize-winning books include: Postmarked India: New & Selected Poems (HarperCollins), Distracted Geographies, Rain, Aria (A K Ramanujan Translation Award), Ladakh, and The HarperCollins Book of English Poetry (editor). Blue Nude: New & Selected Poems | Translations 1979-2014 (Jorge Zalamea International Poetry Prize) is forthcoming. He is the editorial director of Aark Arts and editor of Atlas. [Photo: Priti D Sen]

Kit Fryatt was born in 1978 in Tehran, and grew up in Singapore, Turkey and England. She moved to Ireland in 1999, where she lived for 13 years. In 2008 she co-founded Wurm im apfel. Her books include Rain Down Can (Shearsman, 2012) turn push | turn pull (corrupt press, 2012) and The Co. Durham Miner’s Granddaughter’s Farewell to the Harlan County Miner’s Grandson (forthcoming from Knives Forks and Spoons Press, 2013). She now lives in Scotland. [Photo: Andrej Kapor]

John Kearns is a writer and translator living in Dublin. The sections from ‘Terminal Wound Ballistics’ printed here are part of a longer sequence.

Born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Melanie Gapany currently lives in Miami, FL, where she is founder and Editor in Chief of Miami Alive (www.miamialive.com). A multinational world traveler from a young age, English is actually her fourth language. Melanie studied creative writing at The University of Central Florida, where she also developed an interest in photojournalism. Her work has been published in Orlando Weekly’s Drink Magazine, Urb Magazine, The Miami New Times and Smile for Camera.

Lara Sterling began her career making documentaries about the Mexican rock and punk underground of the late ’90s in Los Angeles. As a journalist, she has covered everything from swingers’ parties to lesbian pornographers for Larry Flynt Publications and also wrote a column for Spanish Playboy, while she lived in Spain. After publishing one of Spain’s first books on fetish, she now dedicates her time to fiction. She is currently pursuing her MFA in Fiction at Otis College of Art in Los Angeles.  [Photo: Ashly Covington Photography]

Nod Ghosh was born in England, to parents from India. She moved to Christchurch, New Zealand in 2002. She is a medical laboratory scientist, specializing in the diagnosis of certain cancers. Her writing has been accepted by NZ publications Catalyst, Takahe, Express and Christchurch Press, as well the NZ issue of Penduline. “By the Rules” explores hypocrisy in the context of cultural constraints, based on observations of dual standards within migrant Indian society. No apologies to those who inspired this; you know who you are.

Nathan Leslie’s six books of short fiction include Madre, Believers and Drivers. He is also the author of Night Sweat, a poetry collection. His first novel, The Tall Tale of Tommy Twice, was published by Atticus Books in 2012. His short stories, essays and poems have appeared in hundreds of literary magazines including Boulevard, Shenandoah, North American Review, and Cimarron Review. His book Sibs comes out later this year.

Elishia Heiden is a doctoral candidate in Creative Writing at the University of North Texas. Her primary area of interest is the 20th-century American novel, and her secondary interests are female memoirists and the history of the essay. She often writes about trauma, redemption, and identity. She is currently working on her dissertation, a novel entitled The Muck & Mire, and she plans to graduate in May 2014. Her work also appears in Litro, Journey, and is forthcoming in Kaleidoscope. Her favorite authors include Margaret Atwood, Joyce Carol Oates, and Richard Wright.

Heidi Evans has an M.A. in Creative and Media Writing from Swansea University in Wales. She teaches writing and literature at Nashville State Community College, and her work has appeared in Nashville Arts, Swansea Review, and other journals. She can be reached at haevans8@yahoo.com.

Éanna Cullen is an Irish novelist. To date he is the author of three novels, Misbeliever, Dark Pupils, and An Egg-Maniac’s Guide (to suicide), but is interested in every form of prose, short, long, or otherwise. Éanna spent his formative years travelling the world from Kumasi to Papeete, learning to speak human. Forget charms and good fortune. Read something, it’ll do you good. Visit Éanna at www.eanna.eu.

Bruce Sydow’s works have been published in literary reviews, journals, and anthologies, including Proud to Be: Writing By American Warriors. He received his master’s degree from the University of Washington. He has taught at Chapman University and Saint Martin’s University, among other colleges, was elected Professor of the Year twice, and holds the Excellence in Teaching Award. Bruce is a former U.S. Marine, and the recipient of the United States Air Medal, the Combat Aircrew Wings, and the Cross of Gallantry.

Christopher T. Werkman retired from teaching and writes full time. His stories appear in Lynx Eye, 50 to 1, Word Catalyst Magazine, Quality Fiction, Litro: Stories That Transport You, Journal of Microliterature, 5923 Quarterly, Specter Magazine; and in anthologies: Hannibal’s Manor, Short Sips–Coffee House Flash Fiction, and Daily Flash: 366 Days of Flash Fiction. When he isn’t writing, Christopher plays too much golf, too much tennis, and rides his motorcycle too fast. He lives with his partner, Karen, and too many cats, outside Haskins, Ohio.

Infatuated with weightlifting and chewy words, Chris Joyner considers himself a “meathead poet.” He is currently an MFA candidate at the University of Miami, but his heart resides in Virginia. He won honorable mention in Winning Writers’ 2012 Sports Poetry and Prose Contest. In 2011 he was recipient of the Alfred Boas Poetry Prize and did some movie-telling at O, Miami. His work has appeared in Brusque, Fiddleblack, the Barely South Review, and elsewhere.

M.S. Rooney lives in Sonoma, California with her husband, poet Dan Noreen. Her work appears in journals and anthologies, including Bluestem, The Cortland Review, Earth’s Daughters, FutureCycle, Main Street Rag and 3:AM Magazine.

Michele Lovell was born in Washington, D.C., moved to Oregon at the age of 15, and has spent the last ten months in rural Arizona, writing. She has had poems published in The Sonora Review, a story published in Hip Mama and the Hip Mama Anthology, and two stories that were Glimmer Train finalists, one in the April 2009 Family Matters contest and one in the Winter 2012 Glimmer Train Fiction Open contest. She has worked with children in the mental health field for the past 25 years.

Anne Da Vigo is an American journalist and public relations professional who spent her girlhood skiing, hiking, and camping in the Rocky Mountains. Her stories have appeared in Literary Mama and Out of Line, and she’s presented her fiction on National Public Radio’s affiliate station in California’s Central Valley. She co-authored and edited a book, Coffee and Ink: How a Writers Group Can Nourish Your Creativity, www.coffeeandink.net.

Originally from Christchurch, Zoë Meager recently completed a Master of Creative Writing at the University of Auckland. She agrees wholeheartedly that ‘animals are good to think with’, and enjoys using short stories and flash fiction to explore the human-animal conundrum. Other work appears in The Island Review.