What inspired you to begin a writing career?

It was being fourteen and staying up all night reading, and believing fiction though I knew it wasn’t real. To me, that was a pure form of magic – to believe a story while you’re inside it. Black words on white pages had turned into colour and I was in there … A few years later, I thought, ‘That’s what I want to do with my life.’

What does it mean to you to win the 2025 Indie Non-fiction Book Award for your first non-fiction book, Three Wild Dogs and the Truth?

Writing that book was a reminder that moments of intensity are what we’re alive for. It made me feel like my sixteen-year-old self who first started writing. It was exciting to be writing non-fiction too, having been a novelist for more than thirty years, and I loved every minute. 

Then, in terms of any awards, I don’t want to trot out cliches like ‘We don’t write to win awards.’ What I’d rather say is that one thing I’ve learnt across my career is that we can choose what we write, but we can’t choose the type, or the scale, of that writing’s success. All we can do is be appreciative if and when it comes, in whatever form it takes … And let’s face it, I was happy that a book about my wild and lawless animals was even publishable. 

What do you know now that you wish you’d known at the start of your career?

That it would last this long! I think there’s an impatience at the start of a writing career, and a tendency to look around at what you think you’re not getting, or achieving. It’s great to be obsessed, but it’s also great to see an alternative where you understand that your book is everything to you as its writer, but the world doesn’t owe you anything.

Which Australian authors or illustrators are influential for you?

The tendency here is to try and give the correct answers – to cover all genres, to create a list of names that hits all bases. What I’ll do instead is say that I started as a Young Adult writer, and all my books still explore youth to some degree. To that end, Australia has some of the very best writers for children, and some of my best friendships and influences in life, let alone in writing, have come from there. 

One influence has been Andy Griffiths, who gathers inspiration from music, film, harrowing exercise routines, self-help, and philosophy (he’s also the only person I know who has actually finished Ulysses, or at least he says so!) 

I also admire Sally Rippin for her versatility in both writing and illustration, and for her tenacity. That, and she’s proof that sometimes the nice guys do finish first. 

In a similar fashion, Alice Pung (not a writer for children as per the first two) has also influenced me in terms of how to be generous in my writing, to give of myself, and to write books that only I could write.

Why are you a member of the ASA? 

I guess most of us writers find ourselves useful to the world through imagination and creativity. We’re not always the wisest when it comes to business, or politics. We often need a bit of looking after. 

The ASA is wonderful proof that we still live in a civilised world, where stories matter, and where the people who make stories are still loved, and held up on the shoulders of others now and then. In some cases, it’s simply for respite – to breathe a little easier – but it’s also to see what’s up ahead, and imagine ways to get there. The ASA’s support helps that happen. It’s crucial to our wellbeing and strength.

Find out more about Markus Zusak at markuszusak.com or markuszusak.