Meg Mundell is a writer, social researcher and cultural geographer. Born and raised in New Zealand, she lives in Melbourne with her partner and young son.
Meg’s second novel, The Trespassers (UQP, 2019), won the 2020 Davitt Award for Best Adult Crime Novel. The book was also shortlisted for the Voss Literary Prize, an Aurealis Award (Best Science Fiction Novel) and a Norma K. Hemming Award. It has been widely praised by critics and optioned for a TV series.
Black Glass (Scribe, 2011), Meg’s first novel, also won critical acclaim and prize shortlistings. Her debut short story collection Things I Did for Money (Scribe, 2013) has been used internationally as a university teaching text.
Right now Meg is working on her first book of non-fiction, funded by grants from the Australia Council for the Arts and Creative Victoria. Who Cares? (working title) will investigate public attitudes to homelessness, and explore creative strategies for tackling blame, stigma and misinformation.
Meg is also the editor of We Are Here: Stories of Home, Place & Belonging (Affirm Press, 2019), a world-first collection of true stories by people who have experienced homelessness. She runs the ‘We Are Here’ project, which uses creative writing to explore understandings of place with people who have gone without a home.
Past day jobs include academic, journalist, policy analyst, nightclub DJ, ventriloquist’s assistant, and deputy editor of The Big Issue Australia. Meg holds a PhD and MA in creative arts, a BA in psychology and philosophy, and a Diploma of professional writing and editing. As a social researcher she consults to the academic, government and community sectors, and collaborates regularly with researchers from Deakin University’s HOME Research Hub. Her expertise spans place, spatial justice, social inclusion, homelessness, storytelling, tactical urbanism and environmental psychology.
Author photo: Joanne Manariti Photography
LATEST NEWS
- The Burning World: a new essay from ‘Living With the Climate Crisis’ (ed. Tom Doig, BWB), via The Spinoff (NZ).
- The Trespassers wins 2020 Davitt Award! (Best Adult Crime Novel)
- 2020 Voss Literary Prize: The Trespassers makes the longlist!
- The Trespassers a finalist in the 2020 Norma K. Hemming Award
- The Trespassers shortlisted for a 2019 Aurealis Award (Best Science Fiction Novel)
- Triptych Pictures and Fremantle acquire TV rights for The Trespassers
- Anna Krien to launch The Trespassers, 8 August 2019, Readings, State Library Victoria
- UQP acquires Meg’s second novel from agent Martin Shaw