Born 1974, Macksville, NSW, Scott Monk grew up in Bowraville, Lithgow and Dubbo before moving to Sydney for his teenage years. He moved to Adelaide in 1996 to work with the Advertiser as a newspaper reporter and in 1999 won South Australia's Young Journalist of the Year Award for his commitment to youth affairs. He went on to work for the Australian newspaper in Sydney. His first book, Boyz 'R' Us, was written when he was 19 and published when he was 21. It won the Royal Blind Society's Talking Book Award in 1997.