Anna Couani (born 6 April 1948) is a contemporary Australian

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

and

visual artist The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, design, crafts and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual art, and textile arts al ...

. Couani was born and grew up in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, the eldest of four children of medical doctors John Couani and Stefania Siedlecky. Her families have Greek and Polish heritage. She studied architecture at the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...

, then took a Diploma of Education (Art) at Sydney Teachers' College and later, an MA in Teaching English as a Second Language from the

University of Technology Sydney The University of Technology Sydney (UTS) is a public research university located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Although its origins are said to trace back to the 1830s, the university was founded in its current form in 1988. As of 2021 ...

. Since the 1970s she has participated in feminist activism and

small press A small press is a publisher with annual sales below a certain level or below a certain number of titles published. The terms "indie publisher" and "independent press" and others are sometimes used interchangeably. Independent press is general ...

publishing. She was President of the Sydney branch of the Poets Union in the 1980s. She was a secondary school teacher from 1972 to 2016, teaching art and

ESL English as a second or foreign language is the use of English by speakers with different native languages. Language education for people learning English may be known as English as a second language (ESL), English as a foreign language (EFL ...

. In her educational work Couani published New South Wales Department of Education and Training booklets of worksheets for

learners. She was union representative for The NSW Teachers Federation in several Intensive English Centres where she worked in the western suburbs of Sydney. Couani became interested in experimental writing in the 1970s, which led to her meeting artists and writers including Robert Kenny,

Ken Bolton Ken Bolton (born 1949) is an Australian poet. He was born in Sydney and studied fine arts at the University of Sydney, where he also tutored. In the late 70s he edited the poetry magazine ''Magic Sam'' and began the small press Sea Cruise Books ...

, Rae Jones and

Kris Hemensley Kris Alan Hemensley (born 26 April 1946) is an English- Australian poet who has published around 20 collections of poetry. Through the late 1960s and '70s he was involved in poetry workshops at La Mama, and edited the literary magazines '' Our G ...

. Her first collection of poems, Italy, was published in 1977. She was an editor with Ken Bolton for a journal of experimental writing, Magic Sam. She established Sea Cruise Books which published books by herself, Pamela Brown, Denis Gallagher, Ken Bolton, Robert Kenny, Kerry Leves, Barbara Brooks, Moya Costello, Carmel Kelly, Kris Hemensley and

Joanne Burns Joanne Burns (born 5 December 1945 ) is a contemporary Australian poet and prose writer, with a strong emphasis on performance in her work. Biography Joanne Burns grew up and lives in Sydney. She studied at the University of Sydney and has ...

in the 1980s. A concern with marginalised aspects of women's lives runs throughout her writing. In 1978 Couani was a founding member of the Sydney Women Writers Workshop, also known as the No Regrets group. In the 1980s Couani published experimental writing, including ''Were all Women Sex Mad?'' (1982), ''The Train'' (1983), ''The Harbour Breathes'' (1989). Her novel ''The Western Horizon'' was serialised in ''

HEAT In thermodynamics, heat is defined as the form of energy crossing the boundary of a thermodynamic system by virtue of a temperature difference across the boundary. A thermodynamic system does not ''contain'' heat. Nevertheless, the term is al ...

'' magazine from 1996 to 2000 and is now available online. In the 2000s, she published the poetry collections ''Small Wonders'' (2011), ''thinking process'' (2017) And ''local'' (2021). Her work has appeared in many anthologies of prose and poetry. Since 2014, she has run The Shop Gallery in

Glebe Glebe (; also known as church furlong, rectory manor or parson's close(s))McGurk 1970, p. 17 is an area of land within an ecclesiastical parish used to support a parish priest. The land may be owned by the church, or its profits may be reserved ...

with her husband, sculptor Hilik Mirankar.

Works

Prose *''Italy.'' (Melbourne : Rigmarole, 1977) *''Were all Women Sex-mad? & Other stories''. (Melbourne : Rigmarole, 1982) *''Leaving Queensland & The Train.'' (Sydney: Sea Cruise Books 1983) *''Italy & The Train.'' (Melbourne: Rigmarole 1984) *''The Harbour Breathes'' with photomontages by Peter Lyssiotis (Sydney & Melbourne: Sea Cruise/Masterthief Enterprises, 1989) Poetry *''Small Wonders.'' with Chinese translation & drawings by Sou Vai Keng (Macao & Markwell: Flying Islands Books, 2011) *''thinking process. (''Melbourne: Owl Publishing, 2017) *''local''. with images by the author (Markwell: Flying Islands Pocket Poets, 2021) Edited *''Island in the Sun : An anthology of recent Australian prose'' with Damien White & Tom Thompson (Sydney: Sea Cruise Books, 1980) *''Island in the Sun 2: An anthology of recent Australian prose'' with Damien White (Sydney: Sea Cruise Books, 1980) *''Minute to Midnight: New Writing for Peace and Disarmament.'' with Carmel Kelly, Kit Kelen & Mark Roberts (Sydney: Red Spark Books 1985) *''Telling Ways: Australian women's experimental writing'' with Sneja Gunew (Adelaide : Australian Feminist Studies, 1988) *''Falling Angels,'' (a Cordite Chapbook 2012) *''To End all Wars''. with Dael Allison, Kit Kelen & Les Wicks (Puncher & Wattmann 2018)

References

External links

Anna CouaniThe Shop Gallery
Conference paper at NLA
Homeland, Nostalgia, the Uncanny: The Work of Anna Couani
from ''Framing Marginality'' by Sneja Gunew
Anna Couani – Rochford Street Review Featured Writer Issue 14Anna Couani's visual artAnna Couani's musical compositions
{{DEFAULTSORT:Couani, Anna 1948 births Australian women poets Living people Artists from Sydney Australian feminist writers Writers from Sydney