Lucashenko was born in 1967 in Brisbane, Australia. Her heritage is European and Murri aboriginal. She is a graduate of Griffith University in 1990 with a honours degree in public policy. Lucashenko's first work to be published was in 1997, with Steam Pigs which won the Dobbie Prize for Australian women's fiction. It was also a short-list nominee for the NSW Premier's Award and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. In 1998 she released the novel Killing Darcy which won the Aurora Prize of the Royal Blind Society and was a finalist for the 1998 Aurealis Award for best young-adult novel and named on the 1998 James Tiptree Jr Memorial Award long list. In 1999 her third book, Hard Yards was released and in 2002 her fourth novel Too Flash was published. Hard Yards was a finalist in the 2001 Courier-Mail Book of the Year and the NSW Premier's Award. She also written a few essays. Lucashenko is currently writing fifth novel which is to be set in New South Wales.

Novels

• Steam Pigs (1997)
• Killing Darcy (1998)
• Hard Yards (1999)
• Too Flash (2002)

Essays

• Globalisation, Kimberley Style in Our Global Face edition 6
• How Green is My Valley? in Hot Air edition 12
• Not Quite White in the Head
• On the Same Page, right? in Stories for Today edition 26
• Our Bodies in Making Perfect Bodies edition 4
• The Silent Majority in Stories for Today edition 26
• Whiteness
• Who Let the Dogs Out?

Source: WorldCat.org, melissalucashenko.com.au, Griffithreview.com

Aurealis Awards

• Best young-adult novel
• 1998: Nomination: Killing Darcy

Aurora Prize of the Royal Blind Society

• 1998: Won: Killing Darcy

Commonwealth Writers' Prize

• 1997: Nomination: Steam Pigs

Courier-Mail Book of the Year

• 2001: Nomination: Hard Yards

Nita Kibble Literary Award

• Dobbie Prize for Australian women's fiction
• 1998: Win: Steam Pigs

James Tiptree Jr Memorial Award

• 1998: Long list: Killing Darcy

NSW Premier's Award

• 1997: Steam Pigs
• 1999: Hard Yards