Venero Armanno is a novelist, playwright and scriptwriter who studied at the University of Queensland, the Australian Film, Television and Radio School and the TISCH School of the Arts in New York.  His collection of short stories Jumping at the Moon was equal runner-up for the Steele Rudd Award, and his subsequent novels include The Lonely Hunter, Romeo of the Underworld, My Beautiful Friend, Strange Rain, Firehead, The Volcano, Candlelife (Vintage) and The Dirty Beat(UQP). He is currently working on The Black Mountain.