Kennedy grew up in Holywood, County Down, Northern Ireland,[1] and, from the age of 12, in Dublin and Kildare.

[2] Kennedy's early short stories appeared in publications including The Stinging Fly, The Tangerine, Banshee, Wasafiri and Ambit.

[2] She was shortlisted for the 2019 and 2020 Sunday Times Short Story Awards, for "In Silhouette" and "Sparing the Heather" respectively.

[7] Kennedy has said that it is "a star-crossed love story set in a small town near Belfast in 1975, at the height of the time known as The Troubles".

[8] The Guardian's reviewer called it a "dazzling, heartbreaking debut collection",[9] and the New York Journal of Books wrote of "deep-probing, slice-of-life stories seamlessly woven in stark vignettes without a filter".