Melissa Lucashenko is a Murri woman of European and Ygambeh/Bundjalung descent. Her first book Steam Pigs won the l998 Dobbie Award for Women's Fiction and was shortlisted for the l999 New South Wales Premier's fiction award and the Commonwealth Writer's Prize, First Published Book. Her next book Killing Darcy won the Children's Book Council Award and the Royal Blind Society's Talking Book Award for young readers. Hard Yards was published in 1999 and shortlisted in the 2002 Courier-Mail Best Book Award. In 2002 her fourth book Too Flash was launched by Jukurrpa Books. Excerpts from Steam Pigs and Hard Yards were chosen for Fresh Cuttings, UQP's first anthology of Black Australian Writing, which will be released in October 2003.