Joseph Woods is an Irish poet and Director of Poetry Ireland

Poetry Ireland

Poetry Ireland is an organisation for poets and poetry, in both Irish and English, in the island of Ireland. It is a public body that receives support from The Arts Council of Ireland and The Arts Council of Northern Ireland. It was founded in 1978 by John F. Deane and is based in Proud's Lane,...

 since 2001. Born in Drogheda

Drogheda

Drogheda is an industrial and port town in County Louth on the east coast of Ireland, 56 km north of Dublin. It is the last bridging point on the River Boyne before it enters the Irish Sea....

, he studied biology, chemistry and subsequently took an MA in poetry. He has lived in Japan, travelled for long periods in Asia, in particular India and China, and more recently in Latin America.

His first two collections, Sailing to Hokkaido (2001) and Bearings (2005), were published by the Worple Press, UK. For his first book, he won the Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award

Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award

The Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award is an Irish poetry award for a collection of poems by an author who has not previously been published in collected form. It is confined to poets born on the island of Ireland, or of Irish nationality, or a long-term resident of Ireland. It is based on an open...

in 2000. He co-edited Our Shared Japan (Dedalus Press, 2007) an anthology of contemporary Irish poetry concerning Japan. Dedalus Press gathered his first two collections in one volume entitled Cargo (2010) and in 2011 published his third collection Ocean Letters.
He has read widely, reviews occasionally and contributes to radio.