He is a poet, short story writer, novelist, dramatist, broadcaster, screenwriter, and scriptwriter for TV, stage and radio.

Des Dillon's play, Singin I'm No a Billy He's a Tim gained critical acclaim at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2005 and toured Scotland and Ireland in 2007.

Monks (2006) was originally published as The Big Q (2001) and was adapted into play which enjoyed its world premiere in the Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh in 2007.

The book is loosely based on Des Dillon's own life, and his lurcher (also called Bailey) who has epilepsy.

His latest award was The Lion and Unicorn prize for the best of Irish and British literature in the Russian Language (2007).