Moya Cannon was born in Dunfanaghy, Co. Donegal in 1956. She studied history and politics at University College, Dublin, and international relations at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. She has published two collections of poems, Oar (Salmon Press, Galway, 1990) and The Parchment Boat (Gallery Press, Meath, 1997). She has been editor of Poetry Ireland Review and has been writer in residence at Trent University, Ontario and at the Centre Culturel, Paris. A recipient of the Brendan Behan Award and of the Lawrence O Shaughnessy Award, she was elected to Aosdana, the affiliation of Irish writers and visual artists, in 2004. She teaches at a school for adolescent travellers in Galway.