JOHN F DEANE was born on Achill Island in 1943 and currently lives in Dublin. The founder of Poetry Ireland and of the Poetry Ireland Review, as well as of the Dedalus Press which he continued to run until the end of 2004, since 1996 he has been Secretary-General of the European Academy of Poetry. Among his many collections are Christ, with Urban Fox (1997), Toccata and Fugue: New & Selected Poems (2000) and Manhandling the Deity (2003), the latter two titles from Carcanet. Among the many languages in which selections of his work has appeared are French, Bulgarian, Italian and Swedish. In addition to his poetry publications, Deane has also published the novels In the Name of the Wolf (1999) and Undertow (2002) and the collection of stories The Coffin Master (2000). His many awards include the 1998 O'Shaughnessy Award for Irish Poetry and, in 2000, the Grand International Prize for Poetry in Romania.

Recently retired as publisher of the Dedalus Press, John F Deane now publishes with Carcanet and with his own Waxwing Press.