Eoin Colfer

Eoin is the patron of the Festival and a resident of Wexford. His books have achieved worldwide popularity. In 2009 Eoin released, And Another Thing, book six in the Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy trilogy. Eoin was personally selected by Jane Belson, wife of the late Douglas Adams to write the book.  

Eoin Colfer (pronounced Owen) was born in Wexford on the South-East coast of Ireland in 1965, where he and his four brothers were brought up by his father (an elementary school teacher, historian and artist of note) and mother (a drama teacher). He first developed an interest in writing in primary (elementary) school with gripping Viking stories inspired by history he was learning in school at the time! After leaving school he got his degree from Dublin university and qualified as a primary school teacher, returning to work in Wexford.

He married in 1991 and he and his wife spent about 4 years between 1992 and 1996 working in Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and Italy. His first book, Benny and Omar, was published in 1998, based on his experiences in Tunisia; it has since been translated into many languages. A sequel followed in 1999, followed by some other books (see below). Then in 2001 the first Artemis Fowl book was published and he was able to resign from teaching and concentrate fully on writing.
 
Eoin has just ben voted the ‘Puffin of Puffins’ the favourite writer of Puffin books readers, as voted by 10,000 readers. His next book, Artemis Fowl: The Atlantis Complex will be the seventh book in the Artemis Fowl series and is released in July this year.

 He says, "I will keep writing until people stop reading or I run out of ideas. Hopefully neither of these will happen anytime soon. He lives in Ireland with his wife and two children. For further information visit: Eoin Colfer