Julia Lawrinson grew up in the outer suburbs of Perth and left school at age fifteen, but eventually completed a PhD in writing in 2004.
She has held a variety of jobs, from supermarket checkout, chambermaid, barmaid, roadhouse attendant and weighbridge operator to speechwriter for the Western Australian Department of Health. She is currently Principal Research Officer attached to the Committees of the Legislative Assembly in Perth, where she and her family live, and she continues to write in her spare time.