Kinsella is by now the most formidable presence in Irish poetry. - Seamus Deane, A Short History of Irish Literature

Kinsella's is a distinct, authoritative, critical voice, but while his body of work might at times appear fragmentary, even the fragments radiate. - Pat Boran, Sunday Tribune

Thomas Kinsella was born in Dublin in 1928. He attended University College, Dublin, entering the Civil Service, before becoming a full-time writer and teacher in the United States. He is the author of over thirty collections of poetry, and has translated extensively from the Irish, notably the great epic The Tain. He was a director of the Dolmen Press and Cuala Press, Dublin, and in 1972 founded Peppercanister Press for the publication of sequencs and long occasional poems. The editor of The New Oxford Book of Irish Verse and of Austin Clarke's Selected Poems and Collected Poems, Thomas Kisnella is also the author of The Dual Tradition (Carcanet), a critical essay on poetry and politics in Ireland. His awards and honours include Guggenheim Fellowships, the Denis Devlin Memorial Award, the Irish Arts Council Triennial Book Award and honorary doctorates from the University of Turin and the National University of Ireland. In 2007 Thomas Kinsella was awarded the Freedom of the City of Dublin.

Carcanet publish several of his books including The Dual Tradition and Collected Poems.