Anita Heiss is a contemporary Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n author of Austrian and Indigenous

Indigenous Australians

Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....

 Australian descent.

Anita Heiss is from the Wiradjuri

Wiradjuri

The Wiradjuri are an Indigenous Australian group of central New South Wales.In the 21st century, major Wiradjuri groups live in Condobolin, Peak Hill, Narrandera and Griffith...

 people though she grew up in and lives in Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

. Her mother was brought up in a Catholic mission and her father is originally from Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

. She grew up in the suburb of Matraville and attended St Clare's College.
She is currently an associate professor at Macquarie University

Macquarie University

Macquarie University is an Australian public teaching and research university located in Sydney, with its main campus situated in Macquarie Park. Founded in 1964 by the New South Wales Government, it was the third university to be established in the metropolitan area of Sydney...

, a director of the Gadigal Information Services and Koori Radio and deputy chairperson of the Australian Society of Authors

Australian Society of Authors

The Australian Society of Authors is the peak body representing Australia's literary creators and is the major advocate for the rights and remuneration of authors in Australia...

. Her most recent work is the novel Paris Dreaming which was published in 2011. Apart from performing her work at festivals around Australia and internationally Heiss has also recently written and directed her first short film Checkerboard Love.

Novels

• Not Meeting Mr. Right (Bantam, 2007) ISBN 9781863255110
• Avoiding Mr Right
• Manhattan Dreaming
• Paris Dreaming

Poetry

• Token Koori (Curringa Communications, 1998) ISBN 0646352903
• I’m Not Racist, But ... (Salt, 2007) ISBN 9781844713165
• Apologies

Non-fiction

• Dhuuluu-yala, To Talk Straight: Publishing indigenous literature (Aboriginal Studies Press, 2003) ISBN 0855754443

Children's literature

• Who am I? The diary of Mary Talence, Sydney 1937 (Scholastic Australia, 2001) ISBN 1865043613
• Yirra and her deadly dog, demon (ABC Books, 2007) ISBN 9780733320392

External links

• Official home page
• Anita Heiss talks Video and transcript
• Anita Heiss reviews some new Aboriginal literature
• Not Meeting Mr Right by Anita Heiss Review