Jennifer Mackenzie was born in Melbourne, Australia, and went to the University of Melbourne, where she studied Literature and Fine Arts. Travel to Indonesia led to an engagement with the art and literature of the country, and in particular with Borobudur, with Old Javanese Literature, and with Pramoedya Ananta Toer's fiction. She completed a Master's degree on Toer's novel Arus Balik at Melbourne University. In relation to the writing of Borobudur, she has said that "texts, my own travels, and experiences pointed in a certain direction and I followed.".