Patricia Forde is from Galway, on the west coast of Ireland. She is the 2023-2026 Laureate na nÓg (Ireland's Children's Literature Laureate). Her first novel The Wordsmith was published to great critical acclaim in 2015. It has since been published in the United States, Australia, Denmark, Russia, Turkey and the Netherlands. It has won a White Raven Award from the International Youth Library, is an American Library Association Notable Book for Children in the United States, and was shortlisted for the Children’s Book of the Year Award in Ireland. In 2018 Patricia wrote Bumpfizzle the Best on Planet Earth, which was chosen as the Dublin UNESCO Citywide Read 2019. She is married to Padraic and has two grown up children. She still lives in Galway, her favourite city in the world.