James Harpur has published ten books of poetry, including his latest, The Magic Theatre. He has won a number of awards, including the Vincent Buckley Prize, the Michael Hartnett Prize and the 1995 UK National Poetry Competition. His debut novel, The Pathless Country, set in Ireland in the years before 1916, was a recipient of the JG Farrell Award and shortlisted for the John McGahern Prize. He is a visiting research fellow as well as visiting writer at the Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Trinity College Dublin, and a member of Aosdána.