Meg Vertigan teaches English and Creative Writing subjects at the University of Newcastle. Students that Meg has taught have gone on to become writers, teachers, nurses, journalists and more. Meg completed her PHD in 2017, which had a strong focus on depictions of “mad” women in literature. Meg has published multiple short stories and has written for The Conversation and Penthouse. Meg started her working life at 16, moving from her parents' home in Morwell where she lived in the lee of the open cut coal mines, to inner city Melbourne where she worked in the fashion industry as a design room assistant. Meg has also worked in a range of bars and factories before single motherhood motivated her to become a teacher. She has since taught people from around the world as well as teaching in Cambodia and dragging her children across the world. THE STRONG DRESS is Meg's first novel.