Tom Phelan was born and reared on a small farm in Mountmellick, County Laois, in the Irish midlands. Phelan had just turned fifty when his first novel, IN THE SEASON OF THE DAISIES, was accepted for publication by the Lilliput Press in Dublin. BOOKS IRELAND's reviewer wrote, "The most obvious question posed by a novelistic debut with as much resounding vigour as this is: Where has Mr. Phelan BEEN?" IN THE SEASON OF THE DAISIES, which centers on the 1921 IRA murder of a young boy and the effects on his surviving twin and the men involved, was chosen for the Discover Great New Writers series sponsored by the American bookseller Barnes & Noble. It was also a finalist for the Discover Great New Writers Award. The novel was published in Paris by Editions Balland as A LA SAISON DES MARGUERITES and in New York by Four Walls Eight Windows.Since then, Tom Phelan has penned five other novels: NAILER, THE CANAL BRIDGE, ISCARIOT, DERRYCLONEY, and LIES THE MUSHROOM PICKERS TOLD (Feb. 2015), and he has seen his works published in four countries and three languages. He has also written for NEWSDAY, IRISH ECHO, INDEPENDENT.IE, CONNECT, and RECORDER, the journal of the American Irish Historical Society. He was named a 2008-2009 Fellow of the Christopher Isherwood Foundation. THE CANAL BRIDGE, set in Ireland and France in the First World War, tells the story of two Irish soldiers--and the women and families they leave behind--as they struggle to survive the slaughterhouse that was Europe from 1914 to 1918. The IRISH INDEPENDENT called it, "Another First World War masterpiece."Originally published in Ireland by the Lilliput Press, THE CANAL BRIDGE was released in the U.S. by Arcade, a division of Skyhorse Publishing. BOOKLIST gave it a starred review, indicating a work that's outstanding in its genre. Phelan's novel, NAILER, which BOOKS IRELAND called "a hard-hitting thriller," is about a man determined to get revenge-or is it justice? It is set against the backdrop of Ireland's abusive industrial schools and the collusion between state and church that allowed them to flourish. ISCARIOT tells the story of an expatriate ex-priest who returns to Ireland to face the past and stumbles across the suspicious circumstances surrounding the death of a young woman. In the humorous DERRYCLONEY, Phelan looks at life in the Irish countryside in the 1940s. He calls the book his "fanfare for the common man and woman" of his childhood. In Phelan's novel LIES THE MUSHROOM PICKERS TOLD (Arcade, Feb. 2015), an Irishman who has worked as a reporter in the U.K. for decades returns home to the Irish midlands village of Gohen, where he attempts to uncover the truth about two murders that occurred during his childhood Tom Phelan has given readings and talks at the West Cork Literary Festival, King's Lynn Fiction Festival, Flat Lake Festival, Irish American Writers and Artists, Hofstra University Summer Writers Conference, Irish Writers Centre, American Irish Historical Society, New York University Ireland House, the Irish Cultural Society, the Irish Family History Society, Villanova University, Molloy College, Quinnipiac U., and scores of other venues. He has been awarded numerous writer's residencies and was selected as the Fall 2012 Ireland Fund of Monaco writer-in-residence at the Princess Grace Irish Library. In 2013 he was honored by the Long Island (NY) Arts Council, which presented him with its annual literary award. For more information, please see www.tomphelan.net.