Melissa Lucashenko is an Indigenous Australian writer of literary fiction and young adult literature.
In 2013 at the Walkley Awards, she won the Long Feature Writing Award for her piece "Sinking Below Sight: Down and Out in Brisbane and Logan". In 2019, she won the Miles Franklin Award for Too Much Lip.
Early life and education Melissa Lucashenko was born in 1967 in Brisbane, Australia. She is of Bundjalung and Ukrainian heritage. She graduated from Griffith University in 1990 with a degree in public policy.
In 1992, she was a founding member of Sisters Inside, an organisation that supports women and girls in prison.
Writing career She has said that when she began writing seriously "there was still a glaring hole in Australian literature," with almost no prominent Aboriginal voices and with very few outlets publishing the work of Aboriginal writers.
Early work Lucashenko's first work to be published was the novel Steam Pigs (1997), which won the Dobbie Literary Award for debut Australian women writers. It was also shortlisted for the NSW Premier's Literary Awards Christina Stead Prize for and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book (South East Asia and South Pacific).
In 1998, she released the novel Killing Darcy, which won the Royal Blind Society's Talking Book Award for young readers (also referred to as the Aurora Prize). It was also a finalist for the 1998 Aurealis Award for Best Young Adult Novel and longlisted for the 1998 James Tiptree Award.
In 1999 her third novel, Hard Yards, was published. It was a finalist for the 1999 NSW Premier's Literary Awards and the 2001 Courier-Mail Book of the Year Award. In 2002 her fourth novel Too Flash, written for young adults, was published.
Critical success Lucashenko's fifth novel, Mullumbimby, won the Queensland Literary Award for Fiction Book in 2013 and the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Indigenous Writing in 2014, as well as being nominated for several other awards. In 2015 it was longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award.
In 2019 her sixth novel Too Much Lip won the Miles Franklin Award and Queensland Premier's Award for a Work of State Significance. The novel was also shortlisted for the Stella Prize. Judges called it "a fearless, searing and unvarnished portrait of generational trauma cut through with acerbic humour." Cenozoic Pictures optioned Too Much Lip for a screen adaptation, with Lucashenko as a co-writer and co-creator alongside Cenozoic's Veronica Gleeson.
Her seventh novel, Edenglassie, was released in 2023 and won the Queensland Premier's Award for a Work of State Significance for the second time, as well as the Victorian Premier's Prize for Fiction. In late 2024, it won the ARA Historical Novel Prize, being commended for capturing "the brutal realities of colonisation while celebrating the resilience of Indigenous cultures."
Non-fiction writing Lucashenko is also an essayist, winning the 2013 Long Feature Writing Walkley Award for "Sinking below sight: Down and out in Brisbane and Logan". Speaking about this essay, Lucashenko said that she was partly informed by her studies in public policy.
Personal life Lucashenko moved with her husband and daughter back to the Aboriginal lands in New South Wales where her great-grandmother said she was from. She subsequently divorced from her husband. She has spoken publicly about her daughter's mental illness.
Nominations and awards Year Work Award Category Result Ref 1997 Steam Pigs Commonwealth Writers' Prize First Book (South East Asia and South Pacific) New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards Christina Stead Prize for Fiction 1998 Nita Kibble Literary Awards Dobbie Literary Award Killing Darcy Aurealis Award Young Adult Novel Royal Blind Society Aurora Prize Talking Book for Young Readers 1999 James Tiptree Jr. Award — Hard YardsNew South Wales Premier's Literary Awards — 2001 Courier-Mail Book of the Year — 2013 "Sinking Below Sight" Walkley Award Feature Writing Long (over 4000 words) Mullumbimby Queensland Literary Awards Deloitte Fiction Book Award 2014 Miles Franklin Award — Nita Kibble Literary Awards Nita B Kibble Literary Award Stella Prize — Victorian Premier's Literary Award Indigenous Writing 2015 International Dublin Literary Award — 2019 Too Much Lip Australian Book Industry Awards — Miles Franklin Award — Queensland Literary Awards Queensland Premier's Award for a Work of State Significance Queensland Literary Awards The University of Queensland Fiction Book AwardStella Prize — Victorian Premier's Literary Award Indigenous Writing 2020 New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards Indigenous Writers' Prize International Dublin Literary Award — 2024 Edenglassie Australian Book Industry Awards Small Publishers' Adult Book of the Year ARA Historical Novel Prize — Barbara Jefferis Award — Colin Roderick Award — Indie Book AwardsFiction Miles Franklin Award — Nib Literary Award — Prime Minister's Literary Awards Fiction Queensland Literary Awards Queensland Premier's Award for a Work of State Significance Fiction Book Award Stella Prize — Victorian Premier's Literary Award Fiction 2025International Dublin Literary Award—New South Wales Premier's Literary AwardsChristina Stead Prize for Fiction 2026Walter Scott Prize—
Bibliography Novels
YA Novels
Essays
Footnotes
References
Further reading
External links
Official website Griffith Review contributor page