Sally O’Reilly grew up in Stoke-on-Trent and now lives in Sheffield. En route, she’s spent time in Brixton, Brighton and Barcelona. Her short stories have been published in the UK, Australia and South Africa, and she has been shortlisted for the Cosmopolitan short story prize and the Ian St James award. She’s published two contemporary novels (as Sam O’Reilly) with Michael Joseph/Penguin and has an MA and PhD in Creative Writing from Brunel University. Her historical novel Dark Aemilia (Myriad Editions/Picador US) was nominated for the Kirkus prize. How to be a Writer, her guide to making a living as an author, is published by Piatkus/Little,Brown.

Sally has worked as a senior creative writing lecturer for the University of Portsmouth and The Open University and her journalism has been published in the Guardian, Sunday Times and New Scientist. She is a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Aston University.

Hagtale, her latest novel, is a dark fairy story inspired by Shakespeare’s Macbeth (Scribe UK, October 2025).