She has written a number of books for children and young adults, including How to Make a Bird and A Single Stone.
Born Megan McKinlay, she spent her childhood in Bendigo, Victoria.
[1] She graduated with a PhD from the University of Western Australia (UWA) in 2001 for her thesis "Gender and cross-cultural analysis: The novels of Tsushima Yûko 1976–1985".
[2] She subsequently lectured at UWA in Australian literature, Japanese and creative writing and, as of 2016[update] was an honorary research associate of that university.
[1] As well as writing for children and young adults, she has published one book of poetry, Cleanskin.