Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin was born in Cork City in 1942. She was a founder member of Cyphers, a literary journal. She has won the Patrick Kavanagh Award, the Irish Times Award for Poetry, and the O’Shaughnessy Award of the Irish-American Cultural Institute.

Her collections include Acts and Monuments (1972), Site of Ambush (1975), The Second Voyage (1977, 1986), The Rose Geranium (1981), The Magdalene Sermon (1989) which was shortlisted for the Irish Times/Aer Lingus Award, The Brazen Serpent (1994), The Girl Who Married the Reindeer (2001) and Selected Poems (2008).

Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin is a Fellow and Professor of English at Trinity College, Dublin and a member of Aosdána.  She is married to Macdara Woods and they have a son, Niall.