Kierin Meehan received a degree in Japanese and German from the University of Queensland and a graduate diploma in Performing Arts (Dance) from the Queensland University of Technology. She worked as a dance teacher and choreographer for ten years then taught Japanese. Having studied Japanese language and culture she then worked in Japan. She started writing in an old, windswept town on Hokkaido's west coast, Kanazawa, when she was asked to write a monthly column (Kierin's Esashi Diary) for the town magazine. Her first novel Hannah's Winter (2001) was researched in Kanazawa. In 2001 Kierin Meehan lived in Brisbane.