Colm Tóibín was born in 1955 in Enniscorthy, Ireland, and is the author of several novels, including The Blackwater Light Ship, Brooklyn and The Master, which was short-listed for the 2004 Booker Prize. It won the 2006 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and the 2004 Los Angeles Times Novel of the Year Award. In 2011 Tóibín was named Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Manchester.