MARY MONTAGUE was born in Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh in 1964. She currently lives in Belfast, where she works as a facilitator of creative writing and a tutor of science at Queen’s University. She is a biologist by background with a Master’s degree in Animal Behaviour, and a PhD in birdsong. Mary Montague has published two collections of poetry, Black Wolf on a White Plain (Summer Palace Press, 2001), and Tribe (Dedalus Press, 2008). Tribe was published in Italian as Tribù in 2014 by Edizioni Kolibris. Her poetry has also been translated into French and Russian. Mary Montague’s work has featured in numerous anthologies, including: The Word Ark: A Pocket Book of Animal Poems, illustrated by the Sicilian artist Gaetano Tranchino (Dedalus Press 2020); Reading the Future (edited by Alan Hayes, Arlen House, 2018); and Science Meets Poetry 3 (edited by Jean-Patrick Connerade & Iggy McGovern, Euroscience Press, Strasbourg, 2013). Mary’s work has benefited from a Poetry Ireland Tyrone Guthrie Centre Mid Career Bursary (2019) and a Support for the Individual Artist award from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland (2017). Other awards include a Fellowship for the Hawthornden International Retreat for Writers (2010), and joint first in Cúirt New Irish Writing (2008). In keeping with the focus of her work on the natural world, Mary Montague contributes to The Guardian’s Country Diary. See also marymontaguewritersite.wordpress.com.