Grainne O’Brien author page

Grainne O’Brien biography

Grainne O’Brien is an Irish writer and bookseller. She is head buyer at Kenny’s Bookshop and has worked in bookselling for over a decade, including a long tenure as children’s buyer at O’Mahony’s Booksellers. O’Brien founded Rontu Literary Service in 2021 to support writers of children’s fiction and co-founded the online literary magazine Silver Apples in 2014. She holds an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Limerick (2018) and received Arts Council of Ireland Agility Awards in 2021 and 2022. In 2022 she was named a Bookshop Hero by The Bookseller magazine.

O’Brien’s publications include the picture book A Limerick Fairytale (The O’Brien Press, 2023), illustrated by Lena Stawowy, and the young adult verse novel Solo (Little Island, 2025). Solo is her first novel for teens and was published by Irish children’s publisher Little Island. Her work in publishing and bookselling runs alongside teaching creative writing at third level and mentoring emerging authors through Rontu Literary Service.

She is represented by literary agent Sallyanne Sweeney at MMB Creative.