James Butler’s background is in education and drama. He holds an MPhil in Creative Writing from Trinity College Dublin. For many years he taught in a school in Tallaght, setting up a theatre group who went on to write plays performed in the Civic Theatre. In 2005 his fi rst play for children, Stuck in the Mud, was nominated for an Irish Times Theatre Award. In 2011 his play for teenagers The Teen Commandments was included in the Trinity College London Anthology of Award Winning Plays. In 2016 his radio play The Carpet Clown was produced by RTÉ Drama On One as part of The PJ O’Connor Awards. His latest play, Scattered, explores the transition made by children from primary school to secondary, and was performed in Clonmel in 2018.