Since 2000, Malcolm Knox has published six books including the novels Summerland and A Private Man, winner of a Ned Kelly Award and a finalist in seven other Australian and international prizes. His non-fiction book Secrets of the Jury Room won an Alex Buzo prize for research and was serialised on ABC Radio.

He started work at the Sydney Morning Herald as a cadet journalist in 1994, after studying at the Universities of Sydney and St Andrews. He has held a number of positions at the SMH including chief cricket correspondent from 1996 to 1999, assistant sport editor from 1999 to 2000 and literary editor from 2002 to 2006.

As literary editor, he broke the story of the fake Jordanian memoirist, Norma Khouri, which won him a Walkley Award (Investigative Journalism category) in 2004. His newspaper and magazine journalism has been published in Australia, the USA, the UK and several other countries.