Kate Barry is a writer and secondary school teacher who lives in Cork City. Her work has appeared in the Sunday Tribune, Social & Personal and Metropolitan, and been broadcast on BBC Radio 4. She has twice been shortlisted for a Hennessy New Irish Writing Award and been longlisted for the Colm Tóibín Short Story Award.

Shane Coleman is the presenter of Newstalk Breakfast and 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.

Tara Flynn is an actor and writer for theatre, radio and TV. Her one-woman shows Not a Funny Word and Haunted (THISISPOPBABY)/Abbey Theatre) played to acclaim on the Abbey’s Peacock stage. She has written three best-selling books and co-hosts BBCRadio 4/BBC Sounds comedy podcast Now You’re Asking, with author Marian Keyes.

Mairéad Hearne is an Irish book blogger from Cork. Since establishing her blog, Swirl and Thread, in 2016, she has developed relationships with many authors, publishers and fellow book bloggers across the globe. Mairéad has hosted events both online and in-person. Her favourite genres are historical, contemporary, crime/ psychological thrillers and literary fiction.

Catherine Kirwan grew up on a farm in the parish of Fews, Co. Waterford. She studied law at University College Cork and lives in Cork where she works as a solicitor. Her first novel, Darkest Truth, was chosen as Cork’s One City One Book by Cork City Libraries in 2019. Her second book, Cruel Deeds, about the murder of a successful Cork lawyer, and her third, A Lesson in Malice, a dark and twisty mystery set in UCC, are both out now in paperback.

Gemma Tipton is an award-winning journalist and writer based in Kinsale. She writes for The Irish Times on art, culture and travel, and has been passionate about horses all her life. She has been Director of the Blackwater Valley Opera Festival and the Kinsale Arts Festival. In 2020, she set up Festival in a Van to bring Covid-safe performances around Ireland. Her own horse, Bosco, is an ex-racehorse, although he never set the track alight like Davy Russell’s have.