Kristina Olsson was born and raised in Brisbane of Swedish and Australian heritage. She studied journalism at the University of Queensland and went on to write for The Australian, The Courier-Mail and Sunday Mail, the Sydney Sunday Telegraph and Griffith REVIEW.

She has also worked as an advisor to government and as a teacher of creative writing and journalism at tertiary and community level. She supervises and mentors several post-graduate writing students and also works as a manuscript assessor and editor.

Her first novel was In One Skin (UQP,2001). This was followed by Kilroy Was Here (Random) in 2005. Her latest book is The China Garden (UQP, 2009).