Melissa Lucashenko is a proud Bundjalung woman and a multi-award-winning writer of fiction and non-fiction. Over the course of her 25 year literary career, Melissa has written a slew of novels and non-fiction essays to international acclaim.
Melissa grew up in Brisbane and after graduating from Griffith University, worked in the field of Public Policy. She went on the become a founding member of Sisters Inside, a non-profit organisation which continues to support women and young girls in the prison system.
Melissa's first novel was Steam Pigs, published in 1997, it is the story of a young Aboriginal woman fleeing her hometown and her family to find herself a new beginning in Brisbane. Melissa was a winner right out of the gate, with the book being shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Award and the Commonwealth Writers Prize while winning the Dobbie Literary Award.
Since then, Melissa has had a meteoric rise in the literary world, with each of her books garnering more attention and praise from audiences and critics alike. Most notable are Mullumbimby, a story of romance and cultural war, Too Much Lip, a darkly funny look at modern problems on ancient land, and her latest work, Edenglassie; an epic century spanning tale of the human cost of colonisation.