Isobelle Carmody began the first of her highly acclaimed Obernewtyn Chronicles while she was still at high school, and worked on it while completing a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in literature and philosophy, and then a journalism cadetship. This series, and her short stories, have established her at the forefront of fantasy writing in Australia. Both the first in the Legendsong saga, Darkfall, and its sequel, Darksong were completed while Carmody was living in Prague and she now divides her time between her home on the Great Ocean Road in Australia and her travels abroad.

She has written many award-winning short stories and books for young people. The Gathering was a joint winner of the 1993 CBC Book of the Year Award and the 1994 Children's Literature Peace Prize, and her most recent book for younger readers, Billy Thunder and the Night Gate, was shortlisted for the Patricia Wrightson Prize for Children's Literature in the 2001 NSW Premier's Literary Awards.