Tony Birch

Born in a working-class, predominantly Aboriginal suburb of Melbourne in 1957, Tony Birch did not expect to grow up to be a writer. Birch’s ancestors include Aboriginal Australians, British Empire convicts sent to Australia when it was still a penal colony, Irish people, and an Afghani man who immigrated in the late 19th century and worked as a cameleer driving caravans across Australia’s interior desert in the days before train or car travel. Birch’s childhood was characterized by poverty, violence, and disobedience. He was expelled from school twice before dropping out at the age of 15. After working as a firefighter for many years, Birch went to back to school in his 30s, attending the University of Melbourne, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in history. Birch subsequently spent several years as a teacher and then went on to earn a PhD in Urban Cultures and Histories. Drawing on the rich storytelling culture of the Aboriginal community in which he was raised, Birch published his first short story collection, Shadowboxing, in 2006. Since then, he has published no fewer than five short story collections, two books of poetry, and four novels. He divides his time between his literary career, academic research on Indigenous topics, teaching, and activism.