Bernie McGill was born in Northern Ireland. She has written for the theatre (The Weather Watchers, The Haunting of Helena Blunden), a collection of short stories entitled Sleepwalkers and a novel, The Butterfly Cabinet. Her short fiction has been shortlisted for numerous awards and in 2008 she won the Zoetrope: All-Story Short Fiction Award in the US. She is a recipient of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland's inaugural ACES (Artists' Career Enhancement Scheme) Award in association with the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen's University, Belfast. She lives in Portstewart in Northern Ireland with