RIONA JUDGE MCCORMACK has spent nine years working in development, in Ireland, Cambodia and South Africa. She is a former Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar, and holds an MA in International Relations. She was the 2016 Hennessy New Irish Writer of the Year, and has also been shortlisted for a range of international honours, including the Bristol Prize, the Aesthetica Creative Writing Award, and the London Magazine Short Story Competition. Her work has been published in The Irish Times, Southword and F(r)iction Series; included in a number of international anthologies; and broadcast nationwide on Ireland’s RTE Radio One as part of the Francis McManus Award.

In 2015/16, Riona won the inaugural Galley Beggar Press Short Story Prize with her story, ‘Backburn’. You can read ‘Blackburn’ here.