Early career: 1983–1997 In 1983, when Knox was 24, she started a degree in English Literature at
Victoria University of Wellington. A year later, she started work on
After Z-Hour in
Bill Manhire's Original Composition course at Victoria. Bill Manhire encouraged her to write her novel, and told her he would be more interested in seeing her complete it, than her degree.
After Z-Hour was published in 1987 by
Victoria University Press, and Knox graduated from Victoria University of Wellington the same year. She was also awarded the ICI Young Writers Bursary award that year. Knox was one of its editors and has been a frequent contributor to the magazine. and
Glamour and the Sea (1996), were both set in Wellington; the former was about a religious community while the latter was a mystery novel set in the 1940s.
''The Vintner's Luck'' and other work: 1998–2010 Knox's fourth full-length novel, ''The Vintner's Luck'', was published in 1998, and was her first book to be published outside New Zealand. It chronicles the life of a peasant winemaker, Sobran Jodeau, and his relationship with the fallen angel Xas. The novel is set in 19th-century
Burgundy, France, and spans 55 years. It was inspired by a feverish dream experienced by Knox when she had pneumonia. After the success of ''The Vintner's Luck
, and spending part of 1999 in Menton, France as the recipient of the Meridian Energy Katherine Mansfield Memorial Fellowship, three novels by Knox were published in quick succession: Black Oxen
(2001), Billie's Kiss
(2002), and Daylight
(2003). Daylight'', a novel about vampires created by a virus, received praise from reviewers and did well overseas. Academic Erin Mercer notes that the novel reflects international Gothic and supernatural literary traditions as well as New Zealand fiction's more realistic approach. Knox's first young adult books,
Dreamhunter and
Dreamquake, were published in 2005 and 2007 respectively, as the
Dreamhunter Duet series. Jolisa Gracewood, reviewing
Dreamquake, described the book as a "
Mansfield-meets-
Mahy fantasy" and praised Knox for her audacious imagination and ingeniously constructed tales. In 2008, she published a collection of non-fiction,
The Love School: Personal Essays, which was shortlisted in the 2009
Montana New Zealand Book Awards. Since 2013 a quotation from
The Love School has been featured on a concrete plaque forming part of the
Wellington Writers Walk, a series of quotations installed along the Wellington waterfront. In 2009 the
film adaptation of ''The Vintner's Luck'' directed and co-written by
Niki Caro was released. The film was almost universally panned at the
34th Annual Toronto International Film Festival. Knox was disappointed at the direction the movie took as she felt Caro "took out what the book was actually about", referring to the romantic relationship between Sobran and Xas which was a core aspect of the novel. Her sister Sara, who is gay, was also upset about the film version. Knox's bad experience with the film made her pull out of a potential film contract with New Zealand filmmaker
Jonathan King for her young adult fantasy series,
The Dreamhunter Duet. That same year, Knox published ''The Angel's Cut
, a sequel to The Vintner's Luck.
The story follows the tale of Xas after the events of the first book and is set in 1930s Hollywood. At the time she said that she was intending to write a third book in the series, The Angel's Reserve'', set in contemporary times, but as of 2020 it has not yet been published.
Later career In 2013,
Mortal Fire was published, a young adult novel described by
Paula Green as "a modern fairy story without fairies, full of breathtaking magic and visual detail", and
Wake, a horror novel for adults.
The Guardian said in its review: "Knox keeps the monster off stage and examines the psychological consequences of its depredations on the survivors, subverting the norms of the horror genre and thus making the ambiguous finale all the more startling." The publication of both books in the same year caused some confusion, with New Zealand bookstore
Whitcoulls inadvertently shelving
Wake in the children's section and listing it as a "great gift for kids". Since 2016, Knox has taught a world-building writing workshop at Victoria University. a fantasy novel that won critical acclaim both in New Zealand and overseas. The book attracted particular attention after a January 2020 book review by
Slate writer Dan Kois headlined "This New Zealand Fantasy Masterpiece Needs to Be Published in America, Like, Now". The book was subsequently acquired by overseas publishers. It was published in the US and Canada in February 2021, and in the UK in March 2021.
Kirkus Reviews wrote: "This darkly luminous fantasy reads like a mystery, thoroughly and wonderfully transporting readers to another world."
The Times described the novel as "bursting with imagination" and "a bewitching, frustrating, strange and perverse novel".
Nina Allan, reviewing the novel for
The Guardian, said it "has the feel of an instant classic" and "is everything fantasy should be: original, magical, well read". She praised the diverse characters and the book's "genuine feeling of jeopardy". It was listed as one of the best science fiction and fantasy books of 2021 by
The New York Times. In June 2020, Knox was promoted to
Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to literature, in the
2020 Queen's Birthday Honours. She said that on receiving the award her first thought was that her parents would have been amused, given her lack of writing ability as a child. In 2026, she published a memoir,
Night, Ma, about a difficult period in her life between 2008 and 2012 when she and her family experienced a number of challenges.
The Spinoff called it "profoundly moving": "It is nothing less than the best of literature about the worst of times." ==Honours and awards==