I was born in Dublin in 1969. I received a BA History from UCD. Over the following eight years I worked for Waterstones in Dublin and London. I left the bookselling trade to undertake a Post Graduate Diploma in Community and Youth Work in Maynooth University. I have worked with various charities over the last twenty years including Women’s Aid, Youth Work Ireland and the Dyslexia Association of Ireland.

I began writing in 2013, and in 2015 undertook an MA in Creative Writing in UCD studying under James Ryan, Éilis Ní Dhuibhne, Frank McGuinness, Lia Mills, Paul Perry and Anne Enright.

My short stories have been shortlisted for the Hennessy New Irish Writing Award, the Sunday Business Post Short Story Award and the Benedict Kiely Competition. Other short works have been published in The Stinging Fly and The Irish Times, amongst others, and have featured on BBC Radio 4. In 2017, I received the John McGahern Award for Literature from Roscommon County Council in recognition of my short story work and in support of my endeavours to complete my first book.

My debut novel WHEN ALL IS SAID was published in 2019 and received the Sunday Independent Newcomer of the Year Award and what shortlisted in the John McGahern Annual Book Prize, the Christopher Bland Prize and longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award. My second novel LISTENING STILL, published in 2021. My third novel THE ISLAND OF LONGING will publish on May 4th, 2023.

My work has been translated into twenty-three foreign languages and is available in twenty-five territories.

I am grateful for the arts grants I have received from Westmeath County Council in 2017 and the bursary in literature from the Arts Council of Ireland in 2020.