Fiona McFarlane is an award-winning novelist and short-story writer. She was born in Sydney, and has a degree in English from Sydney University, a Ph.D from Cambridge University, as well as an MFA from the University of Texas at Austin. She has received fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Her first novel, The Night Guest, was translated into nineteen languages, shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award, The Stella prize, The Guardian First Book Award, an LA Times Book Prize and won the Voss Literary Prize and a NSW Premier’s Award. In 2014, Fiona was named a Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Novelist Her second published work, the collection of short stories, The High Places won the International Dylan Thomas prize earlier this year.