Danielle McLaughlin’s debut novel The Art of Falling was published in 2021. She is also the author of the short story collection Dinosaurs on Other Planets. Her stories have appeared in The New Yorker, The Stinging Fly and various anthologies. She has won the Windham Campbell Prize, The Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award, the William Trevor/Elizabeth Bowen International Short Story Competition, The Willesden Short Story Prize, the Merriman Short Story Competition in memory of Maeve Binchy and the Dromineer Literary Festival short story completion. She was writer in residence at UCC from 2018-2019.

Olivia Fitzsimons is from Northern Ireland. She now lives in Wicklow but never lost her accent. She studied History at Trinity College Dublin and Rijksuniversiteit Groningen Netherlands. The Quiet Whispers Never Stop (John Murray Press) is her first novel and was an Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair winner in 2020. She has received a Literary Bursary from the Arts Council and an award from The Northern Ireland Arts Council. Her short stories have been placed or shortlisted in many competitions including; The Sunday Business Post/Penguin Short Story Prize and the Benedict Kiely Short Story Award. She has two feature films in development and is currently working on her second novel.

Shane Coleman is the presenter of Newstalk Breakfast. He also presents the popular podcast ‘Top Five Books’. He is a former Political Editor and Business Editor of the Sunday Tribune newspaper. A regular columnist for the Sunday Independent, he is also the author of four books on Irish politics, including Bertie Ahern and the Drumcondra Mafia and Scandal Nation: Key Events that Shook and Shaped Ireland