Alison Croggon

As a ten-year-old, Alison Croggon’s biggest ambition was to pen a fantasy novel. She blames it all on her parents that were fighting one night making it impossible to sleep. When they finally slept, she crept out of bed and headed to the kitchen. Her father who was a voracious reader had left a copy of “The Lord of the Rings” on the kitchen table and out of idle curiosity, she got busy reading. She loved it so much that she was up the whole night and the whole of the following day until she finished reading it. Croggon would go back and reread the novel several times until the paperback wore out. When she grew up, the thought of becoming an author gradually faded away as she became a journalist. She got a job with the Melbourne Herald and worked with the paper until she got tired of it. At only 25, she was bored with the job as all she wanted to do was write poetry. She resigned in 1985 to become a poet and soon after was expecting her first child. The birth of Josh made her realize the precariousness of her financial situation and made her take her writing really seriously. Pushing herself harder than ever, she got her first collection of poems published in 1991 by Penguin Books. The book went on to win several awards and gave her the confidence that she could become a professional author.