Airlie Lawson, originally from South Australia, lived in Canberra during the 1980s where she completed her schooling, which included studying English Literature under Canberra author and then teacher Marion Halligan. After gaining her Masters in English and American literature at Sydney University, Lawson worked part-time at Australian Book Review in Melbourne. Since then, she has held positions in rights, marketing, sales and publicity in Australia and overseas at major publishing houses, including HarperCollins and Allen & Unwin.
She holds a PhD from ANU (Conditions of Access: Mapping the Value of Australian Novels in the Twenty-first Century Global Marketplace), and has worked as a postdoctoral fellow on the University of Melbourne's Untapped project.
