Jewelene Barrile lives in Melbourne with her family where she is a writer and a buyer for an independent bookstore. Her previous endeavours included teaching in secondary education and adult literacy.

Jewelene was recently awarded fellowships from Varuna and the Olvar Wood writers′ centres, and in 2009 received the Marian Eldridge award for aspiring female writers.

‘The Geometry Lesson’ won the 2010 Josephine Ulrick Literature Prize. This short story is crafted from ideas from a novel that she’s currently redrafting. Its concerns are identity, memory and the curious lies we tell ourselves.