Trudi Canavan is a distinguished author from Australia, best known for her fantasy novels. She has written several successful trilogies, including the Black Magic series, Traitor Spy series, Age of the Five, and Millennium's Rule. Canavan was born in Kew, Melbourne, and grew up in Ferntree Gully, where she developed an early interest in art, writing, and music. As a child, she decided to become a professional artist and attended the Melbourne College of Decoration, where she earned an Advanced Certificate in Promotional Display.
Canavan's writing career took off in 1995 when she began working as a freelance graphic designer and contributing to an Australian fantasy and science fiction publication called Aurealis. However, her dream of writing a novel did not materialize until she was 25, and she spent the next few years honing her craft by taking courses and refining her writing skills. In 1999, she won the Aurealis Award for Best Fantasy Short Story for "Whispers of the Mist Children" and was granted a writer's residency at Varuna Writers’ Centre in Katoomba, New South Wales.
Canavan's debut series, the Black Magician trilogy, became an international success, with all three volumes making it to the top ten SF bestseller lists in Australia. The trilogy was later published in North America and the UK by HarperCollins’ EOS imprint and Orbit Books, respectively. The series has been rated by Nielsen BookScan as the most successful debut fantasy series of the last 10 years. Canavan's subsequent trilogies, Age of the Five and Millennium's Rule, have also enjoyed bestselling success, with the latter reaching No.3 in the Sunday Times hardback fiction bestseller list. In early 2006, Canavan signed a seven-figure contract with Orbit to write the prequel and sequel to the Black Magician Trilogy. The prequel, The Magician’s Apprentice, was released in 2009 and won the Best Fantasy Novel category of the Aurealis Awards.
Canavan currently resides in Melbourne, Australia, with her partner, where she spends her time writing, painting, and weaving. She has a reputation for keeping her fantasy series short and sweet, preferring not to overwhelm her readers with lengthy narratives. Instead, she aims to keep her readers eagerly awaiting her next trilogy.