Tara June Winch grew up on the south coast of New South Wales. She is of Wiradjuri, Afghan and English heritage. In 2004 she won the David Unaipon Award for Indigenous Writers and is the recipient of the International Rolex mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative.

Her multi-award winning debut collection of short stories Swallow the Air was published by UQP in 2006 and won several awards. She is an ambassador for the Indigenous Literacy Project and a former winner of the State Library of Queensland’s Young Writer’s Award. Her writing has appeared in Best Australian Stories 2005, Griffith REVIEW, the Bulletin, the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and Manoa.

She is currently (2007) undertaking a BA, living on the coast with her daughter, Lila, and working on her second novel. Also in 2007 the Literature Board of the Australia Council funded Winch to undertake a two month residency during 2008 at Ledig House Writers' Colony, Omi, New York.