I grew up in Canberra and during adolescence wrote a lot of poetry, prose and began (without finishing) a couple of novels. I was sometimes published in local magazines, enjoyed performance poetry and participating in the local writers community. I also used to write articles for left-wing and university newspapers.
At age 17 I fell in love with my Italian teacher (I was doing a language degree by correspondence) and moved to Sydney to be with him. I gave birth to my first son at age 18 and went on to have 5 children. I dropped out of my degree but returned to it, part time, 5 years ago. I'm now in the equivalent of 3rd year and the majors are in Spanish and Italian.
For years I wrote little and only for myself, however a personal crisis provoked by the death of my computer and the loss of everything I'd been working on in the last few years, inspired me to begin writing prolifically again. Working around my 2 year old's naps, I've written a lot of poems in the last few months.