The Author

Sandy Fitts’ poetry has won many awards in the UK and Australia. Her poem ‘Waiting for Goya’ won the Gwen Harwood Poetry Prize in 2007. It was published in the quarterly journal Island Issue 113, and Best Australian Poems 2008, Black Inc.

Other first prizes include The Arts Queensland Val Vallis Award and the Melbourne Poets Union International Poetry Competition, while ‘Headgear (a review)’ was shortlisted for the Australian Book Review poetry prize. In the UK, ‘A Defence of Humour’ won second prize in the Petra Kenney International Poetry Competition, while ‘At The Polite Pub’ was shortlisted for the Bridport Poetry Prize. (Prior to 2007, poems were published under the name, Sandra Hill.)

View from the Lucky Hotel was published in 2008 and was a winner of the Fellowship of Australian Writers (FAW) Anne Elder Award, awarded for the best first collection of poetry published in Australia in 2008.

Born in Lincolnshire, England, Fitts grew up on the coast of Yorkshire, spent time in Surrey, and later lived on Merseyside, the Wirral, Cheshire. While based in Melbourne, her various university degrees ranged across literature, history, psychology, and an M.B.A.

Fitts has worked on trains and boats, in factories, cafes, schools, and in many offices as community activist, policy analyst, management consultant, research director, and senior executive.

During 2006 she served on the committee of the Poetry Australia Foundation, assisting in the establishment of the Australian Poetry Centre, and in 2007 served as Deputy Chair of the Board of the Australian Poetry Centre. australianpoetrycentre.org.au

Currently, Fitts is writing her next book.