William Wall is the author of eight novels, six collections of poetry and three of short fiction. Working with his Italian agent, he now publishes first in Italian translation and then in English. His most recent novel is Writers Anonymous (New Island, 2025), which among other things can be read as a writing manual, a mystery, a psychological thriller and a coming of age story.

Wall’s short stories have won him many prizes, including the Drue Heinz Literature Prize in the USA which led to his US published short story collection The Islands (2017) and on which painter Angie Shanahan based her 2024 exhibition of the same name. His most recent published stories are ‘Poets of Rapallo’ (Spoken Stories, RTÉ Radio) and ‘The Face’ (Cork Stories, Doire Press).

His work has been translated into many languages. He was the first Poet Laureate of Cork City and County. He was 2019 Writer In Residence at the Joyce Summer School in Trieste. He was an Irish delegate to the European Writers’ Parliament in Istanbul 2010 and has been Writer in Residence at The Princess Grace Irish Library, Monaco and a Fellow of The Liguria Centre for the Arts & Humanities with which he continues to collaborate from time to time. He collaborated with artist Harry Moore to produce the Shadowlands exhibition and book in 2008.

His work has won numerous prizes in Ireland, Italy and the USA, including the the Drue Heinz Prize; the Patrick Kavanagh Award; The Virginia Faulkner Award; the Premio Lerici; the Premio Carlo Bo; the Premio di Conza; The Doolin Prize; the Sean O Faolain Prize; and several Writers’ Week Awards. He was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize for his 2005 novel This Is The Country and for numerous other awards and prizes including the Raymond Carver Award.

He holds a PhD in creative writing from the School of English, University College Cork. He and his wife Liz are regulars at the conference. They now spend half their year in Italy and half in Cork, Ireland.

Su Wei-Chen received a master’s degree and Ph.D. in Chinese Language and Literature from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Su is currently a full-time professor in the Department of Chinese Literature, NCKU (National Cheng Kung University. A novel, The Island of Silence, earned her the price appraisal group of the China Times Million Dollar Literary Prize for Novel in 1994. Her novels include The Faded Years of Youth (1981), Old Love (1985), To Leave the Village Tong-Fang (1990), Flying from Home (1987), The Island of Silence (1994), The Procession in Time (2006), Revolving door (published 2016, 2017 Tibe Book Prize). For prose works, Su has published The Journey of Solitude (1999), The Magic Hours (2002), The Memories of Books (2010), and Island of Silence (2013). Su has obtained National Troops Literary Arts Oscar, United Daily News Prize for the Novelette, Chunghwa Daily News Prize for Novel, Central News Prize for Novel, Prize Appraisal Group of China Times Million Dollar Literary Prize for Novel, and the Tainan Prefectural City Prize for Literary Contribution. 

Wun-Jin, He. Born in Taichung,Taiwan in 1998, and living in Hú-siâⁿ, Tainan, Wun-Jin graduated from Taiwan Literature Department of National Cheng Kung University with a double major in History. She has won the Lin Yutang Literary Award, the Tainan Literary Award, the Ministry of Education Literary Creation Award, the Taiwan Literature Award, etc. She published a collection of short stories & quot;That Day,We Searched Our Ways Behind a Chicken Butt"(Chiu Ko Publishing CO., LTD.,2022).