Cirrus@Austlit

Chris McLeod was born in Perth, Western Australia, and grew up in the Western Australian country town of Katanning. In 1971 he completed qualifications in psychology at the University of Western Australia. As well as practising as a psychologist, McLeod has worked in journalism, social work, teaching and as a taxi driver. From the mid-1990s he became self-employed, principally as a writer, teacher of writing and editor. McLeod was fiction editor of the leading Australian and international literary magazine, Westerly, between 1997 and 1999. He has taught creative writing at the University of Western Australia and has been involved as a mentor in a number of mentoring programs for emerging writers (1998-2004). He received a Doctorate in English/Creative Writing from Murdoch University in 2002 (his thesis included a draft of the novel City of Skies) and a Master of Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Western Australia in 1997 (with a draft of the novel River of Snake as part of the thesis).