Catherine McKinnon is a novelist, playwright, and director. She studied at Flinders University Drama Centre and then became a founding member of the Red Shed Theatre Company. Over a nine-year period she worked for the Shed as a writer, director,
dramaturg, and co-artistic coordinator. She directed, and with company members and writers, helped develop, many new Australian plays.
During this time she also freelanced to the State Theatre Company of SA. After leaving Adelaide she completed a Masters in
Creative Writing at UTS Sydney, and worked for April Films, on a documentary about the making of Jindabyne, before undertaking a PhD at Flinders University, which included a
creative project, (a novel), and an exegesis. In 2006 she won the Penguin Women’s Weekly
Award for her short story Haley and the Sea. In 2008 Penguin Viking published her novel,
The Nearly Happy Family.