Declan Ryan was born in Mayo, Ireland and is a poet and critic in London. His first collection, Crisis Actor, is published in the UK by Faber & Faber and in the US by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. His poems, reviews and essays have appeared in journals including New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, The Baffler, Times Literary Supplement, The Paris Review, The Guardian, Poetry, Granta and The Irish Times.