Mark Roper was born in Derbyshire in 1951 and has lived in Ireland since 1980. His collections include The Hen Ark (1990), which won the 1992 Aldeburgh Prize for best first collection; The Home Fire (1998) and Whereabouts (2005). A Gather of Shadow (2012) was joint winner of the Michael Hartnett Award in 2014, and was shortlisted, along with Bindweed (2018), for the Irish Times Poetry Now Award. Even So: New & Selected Poems, was published by Dedalus Press in 2008. He has also collaborated on 3 books with the photographer Paddy Dwan.