Una Cruickshank has an MA in Creative Writing from the International Institute of Modern Letters, and another earlier MA that she doesn't talk about as much. She was born in Tamaki Makaurau Auckland and now lives in Poneke Wellington. She works at an audiovisual archive and haunts the city's cinemas and libraries, and that one karaoke place that smells like boiled meat. The Chthonic Cycle is her first book.