Falconer is the only child of two
graphic designers. She studied for her undergraduate degree at the
University of Sydney and completed a Ph.D. in English Literature and Cultural Studies at the
University of Melbourne. She is the author of the novels
The Service of Clouds and
The Lost Thoughts of Soldiers (which was republished in Australian paperback as
The Lost Thoughts of Soldiers and Selected Stories). She also wrote
Sydney, a personal history of her hometown, for the
Australian Cities series. In 2010 she was appointed a senior lecturer in creative writing at the
University of Technology Sydney. She has served as judge of a number of literary awards, including the
Calibre Prize (2015), the
Stella Prize (2017), and the
NSW Premier's Literary Awards (2017). ==Recognition and awards==