Michael Longley & Tom French

Michael Longley has been described as ‘an elegant voice in Irish poetry, whose stature is now beyond challenge’ and ‘a master in an old, great tradition’. In 2007, he was appointed Professor of Poetry for Ireland, and his inaugural lecture, A Jovial Hullabuloo, was published in pamphlet form in the same year. Tom French was born in Kilkenny in 1966 and raised across the border in Tipperary. He received a bursary in literature from An Chomhairle Ealaíon/The Arts Council, Ireland in 1999, and his first collection Touching the Bones (Gallery Press, 2001) was awarded the Forward Prize for First Collection 2002. He lives with his family close to the coast of County Meath where he earns his living in the county library service.