Colm Tóibín is an acclaimed Irish novelist, short story writer, essayist, journalist, critic, playwright, and poet. Among his notable works, The South, published in 1990, marked his debut as a novelist. The Blackwater Lightship was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and The Master, a fictionalised exploration of Henry James's inner life, was also shortlisted for the Booker Prize and received the 2006 International Dublin Literary Award. His book Nora Webster won the Hawthornden Prize, and The Magician, inspired by the life of Thomas Mann, was awarded the Folio Prize. Tóibín is a member of Aosdána, an affiliation of artists in Ireland, and the recipient of the biennial "UK and Ireland Nobel" David Cohen Prize in 2021.

Tóibín succeeded Martin Amis as professor of creative writing at the University of Manchester and was appointed Chancellor of the University of Liverpool in 2017, a term which he completed in 2022. He is currently the Irene and Sidney B. Silverman Professor of the Humanities at Columbia University in Manhattan.