Emily Ballou undertook post-graduate studies at the University of Sydney. She is a poet, novelist and screenwriter. In 1996, she was a recipient of the then, Australian Film Commission (AFC) New Screenwriters Scheme for her first feature screenplay Sadie X-Ray. She has worked with Gillian Armstrong adapting Helen Hodgman's Waiting for Matindi for the screen, and wrote the short film Mittens, directed by Emma Freeman, which was Fox Searchlight's 2004 contender for the Academy Awards. She was one of The Sydney Morning Herald's Best Young Novelists of 2003.