Bernard MacLaverty lives in Glasgow. He has written four collections of stories and four novels, including Grace Notes which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and won the Saltire Scottish Book of the Year Award. His most recent story collection, Matters of Life and Death, was published in 2006. He has written versions of his fiction for other media - radio plays, television plays, screenplays - and wrote and directed the short film Bye Child which recently won a BAFTA award.