GAIL JONES teaches literature, cinema and cultural studies at the University of Western Australia. She is the author of two collections of short stories, Fresh Lives and The House Of Breathing, and the novels Black Mirror, which won the Nita B. Kibble Award; Sixty Lights which was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2004, shortlisted for the 2005 Miles Franklin Award, and has won numerous literary awards, including the Victorian Premier’s Award and the Australian Literary Society’s Gold Medal for Literature and most recently Dreams of Speaking.