Thomas McCarthy was born in Cappoquin, Co. Waterford in 1954. A poet, essayist and novelist, his collections of verse include The First Convention, The Sorrow Garden and Pandemonium. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Patrick Kavanagh Award, the Alice Hunt Bartlett Prize and the O'Shaughnessy Prize for Poetry. Pandemonium was short-listed for the Irish Times/Poetry Now Award. He is a member of Aosdana, the Irish Assembly of artists and writers. He worked as estate gardener for a grandson of the Duke of Leinster while he was in secondary school and college.