Betty Birskys was born in Toowoomba, grew up on Manly Jetty. 

She served in the Australian Army Medical Women’s Service in World War II. She married Anton, a Lithuanian displaced person immigrant, in 1951. 

She has always loved writing, especially about the migrant experience. Homeland (2005) and At the Island (2007) were both prize winners. 

She is now a sometimes tetchy great-grand-mother.