Cassandra Pybus completed her PhD on history and social change in the work of C Vann Woodward and Robert Penn Warren at the University of Sydney in 1978. She worked as an academic and policy adviser to government before becoming a full-time writer in 1985. During the 1990s, Pybus wrote a number of highly-acclaimed (and sometimes controversial) books, including Gross Moral Turpitude (1993), The White Rajah (1996) and The Devil and James McAuley (2000). In addition to these books, she also wrote two volumes of autobiography, Till Apples Grow on an Orange Tree (1998) and Raven Road (2001). In 2006 Pybus published Black Founders: The Unknown Story of Australia's First Black Settlers which was shortlisted for the Community Relations Commission Prize in the 2006 New South Wales Premier's Awards.
In addition to her own works, Pybus has been involved in magazine publishing as editor of the literary magazine Island (1989-1994) and founding editor of the electronic forum, Australian Humanities Review (1996- ). Since 2000, she has worked as a research fellow at several institutions, including the University of Tasmania and the Georgetown University. In 2007, her book, Black Founders : The Unknown Story of Australia's First Black Settlers (2006) was shortlisted for the New South Wales Premier's History Awards, Australian History Prize.