James Butler's background is in education and drama. He holds an MPhil in Creative Writing from Trinity College Dublin. He taught in a primary school for many years in Dublin and set up a Community Drama Theatre Group (F-Troupe) while working there. He wrote plays in collaboration with the group which were performed in the Civic Theatre. In 2005 his play for children, Stuck in the Mud was nominated for an Irish Times Theatre Award. He spent many years as a writer working in collaboration with the teenage members of Kathryn Coffey's Stage 51 Theatre Group. Some of the plays performed by the group are available on Playshare. (Youth Theatre Ireland's curated compendium of plays.) In 2016 his radio play The carpet Clown was produced by RTÉ Drama On One as part of The PJ O' Connor Awards. In 2019 his novel for young adults, Dangerous Games was published by Little Island Books and won The Great Reads Award (2020).