Janette Turner Hospital grew up in Brisbane and was educated at Wilston State School, Mitchelton High, the University of Queensland and Kelvin Grove Teachers’ College. She taught high school north of Cairns, but since her post-graduate degrees in Canada, she has taught in universities in Canada, Australia, England, France and the United States. She has won a number of prizes for her eight novels and three short-story collections, which have been published in numerous languages. In 2003, she won the Queensland Premier’s Literary Award and the Patrick White Award, and received a Doctor of Letters honoris causa from the University of Queensland. For twelve years, she held an endowed chair as Carolina Distinguished Professor of English at the University of South Carolina. In 2010, she was a Visiting Professor at Columbia University in New York. She continues to teach a course at the University of South Carolina as Carolina Distinguished Professor Emerita.