Margo Lanagan was born in 1960 and grew up in the Hunter Valley (NSW) and Melbourne. She traveled a bit, studied history at university in Perth and Sydney and has worked as a kitchen-hand and encyclopedia seller, as well as spending ten years as a freelance book editor. She is now a technical writer as well as a creative one. She has written three books of junior fiction, Wild Game, The Tankermen, and Walking Through Albert, and two books of YA realistic fiction, The Best Thing and Touching Earth Lightly. Her short fiction has been collected in White Time and World Fantasy Award winner Black Juice. Her most recent book is collection Red Spikes. Upcoming is a new novel Tender Morsels.

She lives in Sydney with her partner and their two sons.