Alison Stewart grew up in Cape Town, studied Journalism and English at university and worked as a journalist before coming to Australia where she worked for Fairfax Media. She has had nine books published - two for adults and seven for young people. Some of her books have been translated into Italian, Danish, Dutch and Thai. Her first book for adults, Born into the Country was shortlisted for the 1987 AA Mutual Life Vita Young Writers' Award. Her next adult novel, Bitterbloom was published in Australia in 1991. Her YA novel, The Wishing Moon was shortlisted for the 1995 Australian Multicultural Children's Award and was a 1995 Children's Book Council Notable book. Days Like This was a finalist in the inaugural 2010 YA Amazon/Penguin Breakthrough Novel Award. Her narrative non-fiction manuscript, Cold Stone Soup was a runner-up in the 2010 Penguin/Varuna Scholarship. Alison lives in Sydney and is married to another journalist, Rob Mills. They have two adult children, Georgia and Angus.