Martin Dyar grew up in Swinford, County Mayo. His first book of poems Maiden Names (Arlen House) was shortlisted for the Pigott Poetry Prize and was a book of the year selection in both the Guardian and the Irish Times. He won the Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award in 2009. With the composer Ryan Molloy, he has written a poetry song cycle for soprano, harp and flute, titled Buaine na Gaoithe, which toured nationally in 2018. He has held fellowships at the University of Iowa, the Washington Ireland Programme, and at the University of Limerick. An Adjunct Professor in Medical Humanities in the School of Medicine at Trinity College Dublin, he is the editor of the anthology Vital Signs: Poems About Illness and Healing which is forthcoming from Poetry Ireland.