Chloe Hooper is an Australian author. She is known for her 2008 non-fiction work, The Tall Man: Death and Life on Palm Island

Early life and education

Chloe Hooper was born in Melbourne, Victoria.

She attended Lauriston Girls' School, and then the University of Melbourne and Columbia University.

Career

Hooper's first novel, A Child's Book of True Crime (2002), was short-listed for the Orange Prize for Literature and was a New York Times Notable Book.

In 2005, she turned to reportage and the next year won a Walkley Award for her writing on the 2004 Palm Island death in custody case. The Tall Man: Death and Life on Palm Island (2008) is a non-fiction account of the same case.

Her 2018 book, The Arsonist: A Mind on Fire, published in the United States by Seven Stories Press in 2020, investigates the Black Saturday bushfires, one of the most devastating wildfires in Australian history.

Awards and recognition

Hooper was a recipient of a Sidney Myer Creative Fellowship, an award of given to mid-career creatives and thought leaders.

• Shortlisted 2002 Orange Prize. for (A Child's Book of True Crime)

• Winner 2006 Walkley Award. for her articles in The Monthly on the death in custody of Cameron Doomadgee on Palm Island.

• Winner 2008 Western Australian Premier's Book Awards, Award for Non-Fiction category, for The Tall Man

• Winner 2008 Western Australian Premier's Book Awards for Book of the Year, for The Tall Man

• Winner 2009 New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards. Won the Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-fiction for The Tall Man

• Winner 2009 Victorian Premier's Literary Award Nettie Palmer Prize for Non-fiction for The Tall Man

• Winner 2009 Australian Book Industry Awards for General Non-fiction for The Tall Man

• Winner 2009 John Button Prize for Writing for Young Adults for The Tall Man

• Winner 2009 Queensland Premier's Literary Non-Fiction Book Award for The Tall Man

• Winner 2009 Indie Award for Non-fiction for The Tall Man

• Winner 2009 Ned Kelly Awards for Best True Crime for The Tall Man

• Winner 2009 Davitt Awards for Best True Crime for The Tall Man

• Shortlisted, 2008 Human Rights Award for Non-fiction for The Tall Man

• Shortlisted, 2008 Walkley Award for Non-fiction for The Tall Man

• Shortlisted, 2009 Australian Book Industry Awards for Book of the Year for The Tall Man

• Shortlisted, 2009 Queensland Premier's Award for Advancing Public Debate for The Tall Man

• Shortlisted, 2009 Gleebooks Prize for Critical Writing at the NSW Premier's Literary Awards, for The Tall Man

• Shortlisted, 2009 Prime Minister's Literary Award for Non-fiction for The Tall Man

• Shortlisted, 2019 Victorian Premier's Prize for Nonfiction for The Arsonist

• Longlisted, 2019 Stella Prize

• Shortlisted 2023 National Biography Award for Bedtime Story

• Winner, 2026 Australian Book Industry Awards General Nonfiction Book of the Year for The Mushroom Tapes (shared with co-authors Helen Garner and Sarah Krasnostein)

• Shortlisted, 2026 Indie Book Awards Book of the Year – Non-Fiction

Books

• 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; with Helen Garner and Sarah Krasnostein)

References

External links

• Items by Chloe Hooper in The Monthly

• Chloe Hooper discusses her book at the Sydney Writers Festival (video)