Declan Hughes is the author of the Ed Loy Private Investigator series: The Wrong Kind of Blood; The Colour of Blood; The Price of Blood/The Dying Breed and All The Dead Voices. His books have been nominated for the Edgar, CWA New Blood Dagger, Shamus and Macavity awards, and The Wrong Kind of Blood won the Shamus for Best First PI Novel.

Declan is also an award-winning playwright and screenwriter, and the co-founder and former artistic director of Dublin's Rough Magic Theatre Company. His latest novel is called City of Lost Girls.

Eoin Colfer is the author of the internationally best selling Artemis Fowl series which have sold over twenty million copies worldwide. Other titles include The Wish List, The Supernaturalist and the Legends series for younger readers.

Eoin’s books have won several international awards including The British Children’s Book of the Year, The Irish World Literature Award and The German Children’s Book of the Year. Artemis Fowl is the only book by a living Irish writer to feature in the BBC’s Big Read list of the UK’s favourite 100 books and has been chosen by the Puffin Classic series as their book of the noughties.

The BBC made a hit series based on his book Half Moon Investigations which was screened in 2009, and his novel Airman is currently in production with Image Movers for a 2011 release. Eoin’s first adult novel, And Another Thing, part 6 of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series was a worldwide bestseller in 2009.

Acclaimed screenwriter, film director and satirist of Scrap Saturday fame, Gerard Stembridge is guest author for this year’s Wexford Book Festival Literary Lunch in Whites Hotel. Gerard’s sharp wit and entertaining insights to modern Irish life provide the backdrop to his latest book, Counting Down. Gerard’s first novel, According to Luke was published in 2006.

Gerard Stembridge is best known to a generation of Irish people as one of the writers, along with the late Dermot Morgan, of Scrap Saturday. The satirical comedy series lampooned cultural and political figures in Irish society. The popular radio show ran from 1989 to 1991 when Ireland was in a major period of growth to what later became known as The Celtic Tiger.

Stembridge also wrote the screenplay for Ordinary Decent Criminal in which Kevin Spacey plays infamous Irish crime boss, Martin Cahill. He also wrote and directed films including Guiltrip (1996), About Adam (2000) and Alarm (2008).
Born in Limerick, Gerard attended UCD and now lives in Dublin.

Imelda Carroll is a library assistant at Wexford library, passionate about story telling. Every Friday morning Imelda runs story-time for toddlers, aged from 18 months to 5 years, using characters and books from the storysack collection.

Imelda is a graduate of NUI Galway. She has written several short stories and was short listed for the William Trevor short story competition in 2008.

Irene Graham is founder of The Creative Writer’s Workshop and author of The Memoir Writing Workbook. Since 1991 Irene’s workshops have guided people from all walks of life to write their stories, either through memoir or fiction, using life experiences as base material. Irene’s innovative right-brain/left-brain writing exercises help the writer to explore the inner world of intuition, feel and imagination.

The result is greater access to inherent creativity and the ability to write from the heart. In May 2009 Irene launched The Memoir Writing Club, which encourages individuals to get together and form Memoir Writing Clubs – similar to book clubs – to write and share their life stories, using The Memoir Writing Workbook as their guide.

The National Library of Ireland, in conjunction with this project, has started a ‘Memoir Archive’ to document the heritage and culture of Irish life.

Judi Curtin was born in London and brought up in Cork. Her first novel for adults, Sorry, Walter, was published in 2003. This was followed by From Claire to Here, and Almost Perfect. Her first novel for children, Alice Next Door, was published in 2005.

There are now seven books in the Alice series. The eighth, Alice and Megan's Cookbook, will be published in Autumn 2010. Judi also co-wrote See if I Care with Roisin Meaney. Judi lives in Limerick with her husband and three children.

Mary Arrigan studied art at the National College of Art in Dublin. Her first art teaching job was divided between the Vocational Schools in Enniscorthy and Gorey, before she moved to Roscrea, Co. Tipperary, where she still lives.

She left teaching in 1995 to become a full-time writer. She has written over forty books for children and teenagers. Her books have been translated into numerous languages.

Airítear Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill ar an cheann de mhorfhilí Gaeilge na linne agus ar an gcéad file Gaeilge a thuill cáil idirnáisiúnta le linn a marthain. Scríobh sí ceithre leabhar filíochta i nGaeilge,'An Dealg Droighinn' (1981), ‘Fear Suaithinseach’ (1984), 'Feis' (1990) agus 'Cead Aighnis' (1991) agus i measc na leabhair dhá-theangacha léi, aistrithe ag file difriúla, tá 'Rogha Dánta. Selected Poems', 'Pharaoh's' Daughter', 'The Astrakhan Cloak', 'The Water Horse' agus 'The Fifty Minute Mermaid'. Tá leabhar aistí léi i gcló 'Selected Essays' agus tá scrioptanna scannán agus dramaí do leanaí scrite aici. Bhi sí ar an tarna file a roghnaíodh in 'Ireland Chair of Poetry', agus go dtí seo an t-aon bhean. Maireann sí i mBaile Atha Cliath ach caitheann si tréimhsí fada i gCorca Dhuibhne agus ins na Stáit Aontaithe, mar a mhúineann sí filíocht.

Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill is considered to be one of the principal Irish-language poets of our time and the first Irish language poet to earn international acclaim during her lifetime. She is the author of four collections of poetry in Irish, 'An Dealg Droighinn' (1981), ‘Fear Suaithinseach’ (1984), 'Feis' (1990) and 'Cead Aighnis' (1991). Her bilingual poetry collections, translated by various poets, include 'Rogha Dánta - Selected Poems', 'Pharaoh's' Daughter', 'The Astrakhan Cloak', 'The Water Horse' and 'The Fifty Minute Mermaid'. She has published ‘Selected Essays’, film scripts and plays for children. She was the second poet to be chosen for the ‘Ireland Chair of Poetry’ and the only woman to date. She lives in Dublin but spends long periods in Corca Dhuibhne, Co. Kerry and in the United States where she teaches poetry.