As a senior lecturer at Macquarie University until 1991, Mark Macleod has had a full career in teaching, notably in children's literature. He has been president of the Children's Book Council of Australia. He is the author of reviews, articles, poems and stories, and has been poetry editor for Meanjin and on the editorial board of Kunapipi. He has also produced a film, Rapunzel in Suburbia : a portrait of Dorothy Hewett : playwright, novelist and poet (1984), and has written book reviews for television, radio, and newspapers. His commentaries on the work of Australian writers such as Randolph Stow and Patrick White have been recorded as teaching resources for secondary students.
Since 1991 Macleod has worked in publishing as children's publisher at Random House and later publishing under his own imprint, Mark Macleod Books, for Hodder Headline Australia. His broad intention in publishing for children is that the works be 'positive and instructive' for readers, without being prudish or prescriptive.
