Chloe Hooper Bio

Chloe Hooper is an award-winning Australian author, and one of the most recognised voices in Australian literature. Her books, both fiction and non-fiction, have explored crime and justice that is deeply researched. She combines this research with compelling storytelling that resonates with readers and those in the literary world. 

Growing up in Melbourne, Chloe is a Lauriston Girls School alumni, and studied a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Melbourne. She went on to obtain a Fulbright Scholarship, a highly prestigious, merit based international exchange program between Australia and America. Under the scholarship she was able to enrol in New York’s Columbia University creative writing program. 

The program gave her the opportunity to live in New York, and provided her with significant exposure to American literature and authors such as William Faulkner and Phillip Roth. 

A Child’s Book of True Crime 

Chloe Hooper’s first book, A Child’s Book of True Crime, is in fact not a book for children. The story focuses on Kate Bryne, a young woman teaching primary school in a small town in Tasmania. Kate is having an affair with the father of one of her students, and his wife has recently published a true crime book of a famous murder in the town, which Kate becomes fixated on. 

The initial idea was to write the book like a parody but, according to Hooper, it sounded too much like an actual true crime story so she reframed the true crime sections as children’s book episodes. She spoke to children about the truth and when it may be appropriate to lie, which then led into a talk about death and what children’s books would be like if children wrote them. It was this inspiration and transcripts Hooper used to write her first novel. 

Journalism and non-fiction 

In 2006, Chloe Hooper won a Walkley Award for her writing on the inquest of the death in custody of Indigenous man, Cameron Doomadgee. The Tall Man, her book on the case, received many prizes on top of the Walkley Award. 

Hooper also wrote an account of the 2009 Australian Black Saturday bushfires. The Arsonist: A Mind on Fire was voted 2018’s Best Non-Fiction title by Australian Independent booksellers. 

In 2022, Chloe Hooper published a memoir titled Bedtime Story. When her husband, author Don Watson, was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia, Chloe went looking for the perfect book to help break the news to their children. Bedtime Story follows her quest to find what lessons children’s literature can teach about grief and resilience. 

Published books

Chloe Hooper has published five books and contributed to another with two other Australian authors. 

• A Child’s Book of True Crime (2002)

• The Tall Man: Death and Life on Palm Island (2008) (released as Tall Man: The Death of Doomadgee in the USA)

• The Engagement (2012)

• The Arsonist: A Mind on Fire (2018)

• Bedtime Story (2022)

• The Mushroom Tapes (2025) – co-written with Australian author Helen Garner, and American-Australian author Sarah Krasnostein

Awards and accolades

Chloe Hooper has received many awards and accolades throughout her career. She has also been a recipient of a Sidney Myer Creative Fellowship, given to mid-career creatives and thought leaders. 

Hooper also won the 2006 Walkley Award Winner for articles in The Monthly on the death in custody of Cameron Doomadgee on Palm Island.

A Child’s Book of True Crime

2002 – Orange Prize – shortlisted

2002 – New York Times Notable Book 

The Tall Man

2008 – Western Australian Premier’s Book Award, Award for Non-Fiction – winner

2008 – Western Australian Premier’s Book Award, Book of the Year – winner

2008 – Human Rights Award for Non-Fiction – shortlisted

2008 – Walkley Award for Non-Fiction – shortlisted

2009 – New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards, Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction – winner

2009 – Victorian Premier’s Literary Award, Nettie Palmer Prize for Non-Fiction – winner

2009 – Australian Book Industry Awards, General Non-Fiction – winner

2009 – John Button Prize for Writing for Young Adults – winner

2009 – Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards, Non Fiction Book Award – winner

2009 – Indie Award for Non-Fiction – winner

2009 – Ned Kelly Awards for Best True Crime – winner

2009 – Davitt Awards for Best True Crime – winner 

2009 – Australian Book Industry Awards, Book of the Year – shortlisted

2009 – Queensland Premier’s Award for Advancing Public Debate – shortlisted

2009 – New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards, Gleebooks Prize for Critical Writing – shortlisted

2009 – Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction – shortlisted 

The Arsonist 

2019 – Victorian Premier’s Prize for Non-Fiction – shortlisted

2019 – Stella Prize – longlisted

Bedtime Story 

2023 – National Biography Award – shortlisted