Meredith McKinney received a PhD in Japanese Literature from the Australian National University in 2002. She lived in Japan for twenty years, teaching English literature and language at various universities. Presently she is a visiting fellow at the Japan Centre, Australian National University, and a freelance translator. She has translated Sei Shonagon's The Pillow Book (a Japanese classic) and Yoshikichi Furui's Ravine and Other Stories, which won her the US-Japan Friendship Commission Translation Prize 2000.