About Dave

I began my arts career as a storyteller in Dublin at nights like The Monday Echo and Milk & Cookies, before realising that it might be a good idea to try writing some of this stuff down.

From then, it was submitting to journals and anthologies, getting rejections, and then occasionally getting accepted by nice places like Bare Hands, the Stinging Fly and The Quotable.

In 2013 I won the Fantasy Book Review Short Story Prize, which was lovely, and I’ve had short stories short-listed for the Hennessy New Writing Award and the Bath Short Story Prize. I graduated from the UCD Creative Writing Masters with the first chapter of what would become Knights of the Borrowed Dark and signed with rockstar agent Clare Wallace of the Darley Anderson Children’s Agency soon after.

Since then, I’ve released the second two books in the KOTBD trilogy, written Doctor Who books for the BBC, and written plays and TV and music videos and RPGs . I teach creative writing at UCD, currently serve as DCU’s Artist in Residence, and have travelled to more than nine hundred schools and libraries all over the world to talk about writing, mental health, and monsters.

I also have two new series coming out in 2025. The first of these is TALES OF DARKISLE, my love letter to Goosebumps, Spooksville and all the other series I probably should not have been reading unsupervised at the age of eight. Find out more here. The second is my debut adult fantasy, and I can't wait to tell you all about it soon...

Tales of Darkisle - my love letter to Goosebumps, Spooksville and all the other series I probably should not have been reading unsupervised at the age of eight. Available in all good bookshops now!

And Sister Wake - my debut adult fantasy, exploring the horrors of faith, colonisation and divine biology. My pitch for this series is that if you don't know Irish history, it's Andor meets Elden Ring. If you do know Irish history, then it's Irish history meets Elden Ring. Sister Wake launches in January 2026 - sign up to my newsletter to find out more and even get a sneak peek.