Maurice Riordan was born in Co. Cork. His first book, A Word from the Loki (1995), was nominated for the T. S. Eliot Prize, as was The Water Stealer (2013). Floods (2000) was a Book of the Year in the Sunday Times and Irish Times. The Holy Land (2007) won the Michael Hartnett Award. His new collection, The Shoulder Tap, is forthcoming from Faber in 2021. He has taught at Imperial College and Goldsmiths College, and is Emeritus Professor of Poetry at Sheffield Hallam. Riordan was Editor of The Poetry Review, 2013-17.