Paddy O'Reilly is a multiple award-winning Australian writer. Her first major short story prize was the in 2002 for her story, "Snapshots of Strangers". She was an Asialink resident to Japan in 1997 and has also won residencies at the Vermont Studio Center, Varuna, The Writers' House, Bundanon Trust, Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers' Centre and the Newcastle Lockup, among others. She has won the Norma K Hemming Award and been shortlisted for the ALS Gold Medal and the Queensland Premier's Literary Awards. Her novels and stories have been published and broadcast in Australia, Europe and the US. Heart of Pearl, a short film for which she wrote the screenplay, was nominated for an Australian Film Institute award.