Alison Goodman

1 universe Last reviewed 2026-09-11

Alison Goodman was born on August 18, 1966, in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. She holds a master's degree in creative writing from RMIT University and has taught creative writing at the University of Ballarat. An Australian writer working across young adult fantasy and adult crime fiction, she debuted with Singing the Dogstar Blues (1998), a young adult science fiction novel, which won the Aurealis Award for Best Young Adult Novel that same year, and later published the adult crime thriller Killing the Rabbit (2007). Goodman is best known internationally for the Eon duology, beginning with The Two Pearls of Wisdom, also published as Eon: Dragoneye Reborn (2008), and continuing with Eona (2011), an epic fantasy drawing on East Asian mythology and dragon lore; the first volume won the 2008 Aurealis Award for Best Fantasy Novel and was named a James Tiptree, Jr. Award Honor Book. She subsequently wrote the Lady Helen trilogy (2016–2018), a supernatural Regency-era series, and the historical novel The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies (2023), which won the 2024 Davitt Award for Readers' Choice. Her work has also received multiple American Library Association and Children's Book Council of Australia honors throughout her career.

Universe(s)

Books

• Eon: Dragoneye Reborn (2008) · Eon Core Canon
• Eona (2011) · Eon Core Canon

Aggregate across all universes

• Total Core Canon books across all universes: 2 books
• Award recognitions across all universes: 1 (1 won)

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