Mary O'Malley was born in Connemara, educated at the National University of Ireland, Galway. She taught for eight years in Lisbon, where her children were born. She was an organiser of the Cuirt Festival in Galway for eight years and has served on the board of Poetry Ireland. She taught on the MA in Writing and the MA in Arts Administration at Galway University for several years, and has been active in environmental education for over twenty years. She was Writer in Residence at NUI Galway from 2001 to 2009, and has held residencies, at the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris, in Derry and in Belfast, the latter involving working with traditional musicians, and with the classical music organisation Music for Galway.

Mary O’Malley is a regular broadcaster on the Irish national radio station RTE I, and travels regularly to the United States and Europe to write and lecture. Half of Valparaiso was written in Paris, where she spends time every year. She is a member of Aosdána, and has received Hennessey and O’Shaughnessey Awards for her poetry.