Rick O’Shea

Rick O’Shea is a broadcaster with RTE - currently weekdays on RTE Gold. He was previously a presenter on RTE2FM and of The Book Show on RTE Radio 1.

He writes a weekly books column for the Irish Independent, runs Ireland’s largest book club - The Rick O’Shea Book Club on Facebook, and hosts and curates public author interviews at festivals.

Rick is also literary curator for the annual UCD Festival, national patron of Epilepsy Ireland and a board member of Fighting Words NI in Belfast.

Caoilinn Hughes

Caoilinn Hughes's latest novel is The Alternatives, a New York Times Editor's Choice. She is the author of The Wild Laughter, which won the Royal Society of Literature's Encore Award and was longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize, and Orchid & the Wasp, which won the Collyer Bristow Prize and was longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award. Her short stories have won the Irish Book Awards' Story of the Year, The Moth Short Story Prize, and an O.Henry Prize. She was recently Oscar Wilde Writer Fellow at Trinity College Dublin and a Cullman Center Fellow at New York Public Library.

Cathy Sweeney

Cathy Sweeney lives in Dublin. She studied at Trinity College and taught English at secondary level for many years before turning to writing. Her debut collection of short stories Modern Times captivated readers with its unique blend of humour and poignancy. Breakdown, her first novel was released to critical acclaim earlier this year. Her work has been published in various magazines and journals.