Time to Rhyme: Gráinne O’Brien and Serena Molloy

Gráinne O’Brien is a writer and bookseller based in Limerick, Ireland, where she lives with her husband and two cats. She is the founder of Rontu Literary Service, a service dedicated to supporting writers of fiction for children as they seek publication of their manuscripts. She completed an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Limerick in 2018 and received an Irish Arts Council Agility Award in 2021, 2022 and 2023. She writes for children and adults and loves weaving classic and traditional stories into the modern world. The O’Brien Press published her bestselling picture book, A Limerick Fairytale. Solo is her first book for teenagers being published by Little Island in April 2025.

Born in Wexford, Serena Molloy has worked as an English teacher in many schools in the UK and Ireland. She now lives in Galway with her family where she can see the sea every day. As a mum of four, her house is always noisy but never ever dull. Having struggled with dyslexia as a child, her novels are a celebration of neurodiversity, empathy and the power to change. Serena’s debut novel, Wider Than the Sea, won the Eilis Dillon award at the KPMG Children’s Books Ireland Awards 2024. It was shortlisted for the Brilliant Book Awards (UK) and The Week Junior Awards (UK). Her second novel, The Tree That Sang to Me, was published in March 2024.