Aine Miller was born in Cork city and now lives in Dublin. Her work has appeared in New Irish Writing in the Irish Press and Sunday Tribune, Image magazine and other publications. She is a former Hennessy Award winner. She won the Patrick Kavanagh Award in 1992 and her first collection of poems, Goldfish In A Baby Bath, was published by Salmon two years later. She is now starting an M.Phil in Creative Writing at Trinity College, Dublin.

The winner's prize, as well as publication in The Irish Times, is a Mont Blanc fountain pen. The five runners up, who will each receive a £50book voucher from Hughes and Hughes bookshops, are: Deirdre Nuttall, Dublin, for The Balloon Race; Tycho Mays, Co Wicklow, for Seems Alright Really; James Toner, Co Wicklow, for Short Back And Sides; Edel Moloney, Co Wicklow, for Angel; and Eugene Stranney, Co Down, for Just A Minute. The judges were author Rose Tremain; Jonathan Burnham, publishing director of Chatto and Windus; and Caroline Walsh, Features Editor of The Irish Times.