"Gerald Dawe was born in Belfast in 1952 and educated at the University of Ulster at Coleraine and University College Galway (now National University of Ireland, Galway) where he taught for many years. He is Professor and a Fellow of Trinity College Dublin and director of the graduate writing programme. He has held visiting professorships at Boston College and Villanova University in the United States. His first collection of poems, Sheltering Places (Blackstaff) was published in 1978. His second collection, The Lundys Letter (1985) published by The Gallery Press, was awarded the Macaulay Fellowship in Literature. Other awards include Arts Council Bursaries for Poetry, the Hawthornden International Writers' Fellowship, the Ledig-Rowholt International Writers' Award and Moore Institute Fellowship. "