Ellen Ryan is a writer and journalist from county Wicklow, whose debut book, Girls Who Slay Monsters: Daring Tales of Ireland’s Forgotten Goddesses won both the Children’s Books Ireland KPMG Book of the Year Award and the Children’s Books Ireland KPMG Junior Juries Award, 2023. Now, Gods Don’t Cry, has been shortlisted for Children’s Book of the Year Senior in the An Post Irish Book Awards.