Dennis O’Driscoll was born in Thurles, County Tipperary, Ireland. He has written eight books of poetry, three chapbooks and a collection of essays and reviews. He has also edited and compiled contemporary quotations about poets and poetry. He is an advisor to Agenda magazine and a contributing editor of Harvard Review. A member of Aosdána, the Irish Academy of Artists, and an Honorary Member of the Royal Hibernian Academy, he worked as a civil servant for almost forty years.