Mary J. Byrne was born in Ardee, Co Louth, and has lived and worked in Ireland, England, US, Germany, Morocco and the French Midi. She has an MA from UCD - her thesis was based on Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria Quartet. She was invited by Durrell to collaborate on his final book of essays, Caesar's Vast Ghost (Faber, 1990). She now lives in Paris, where she has taught in three universities and has worked as a translator of theatre and screenplays. She has published short stories, articles and poetry in Ireland, Britain, France and the US. She won a Hennessy Literary Award in 1985, and was recently shortlisted for an Albertine Sarrazin award. She is currently working on a novel set in Ireland.