Alison Croggon is a poet, critic, literary editor and author. She trained as a journalist on the Melbourne Herald and is the interna-tionally acclaimed author of numerous poetry collections and plays. Her first book of poems, This is the Stone, won the 1991 Anne Elder and Dame Mary Gilmore Prizes. Her novella Navigatio was highly commended in the 1995 Australian/Vogel literary awards. Her second book of poems, The Blue Gate, was shortlisted for the Victorian Premier's Poetry Prize. Attempts at Being was shortlisted for the Kenneth Slessor Poetry Prize in the NSW Premier's Literary Awards and was also nominated for a Pushcart Prize in the US. The Gift, the first book in Alison's acclaimed young adult fantasy series The Books of Pellinor, was shortlisted for two Aurealis Awards for Excellence in Australian Speculative Fiction and named a 2003 CBCA Notable Book. The series has since been released to critical acclaim in the US, the UK and Germany. Alison is a Melbourne theatre critic for The Australian, and keeps a respected blog of theatre criticism, Theatre Notes. She is married to playwright Daniel Keene, lives in Melbourne and has three children.