Joseph Woods was born in Drogheda in 1966. He studied biology and chemistry, holds an MA in Poetry, and has worked as a chemist, a teacher and director of studies in a language school. Since 2001, he has been director of Poetry Ireland. Widely travelled, he has lived in Japan and Asia. For his first book Sailing to Hokkaido (2001), he received the Patrick Kavanagh Award. This was followed by Bearings in 2005. Cargo reissues these two books in a single volume. With Irene de Angelis he has co-edited an anthology of contemporary Irish poetry relating to Japan, Our Shared Japan (2007). His latest collection is Ocean Letters (2011).

“A poet with the whole world in his hip-pocket.”
—James J McAuley