Jill Hellyer (b.1925)is an Australian poet and writer, and one of the founding members of the Fellowship of Australian Authors. She is the recipient of an Order of Australia Medal (OAM) for services to Australian poetry.

Biography

Jill Winsome Hellyer was born in 1925 in Sydney, Australia, to parents Harold and Ruby. Her older brother, Allan, died of a chronic illness in his teenage years, and Jill's father died soon afterwards. Her mother, Ruby, was diagnosed with leukaemia and died when Jill was 12. Jill was sent to live with two unmarried aunts in the Sydney suburb of Seaforth, who raised her until adulthood and inspired several of her better-known poems, including "Living With Aunts", which is included in The Puncher and Wattman anthology of Australian Poetry (2010). She attended North Sydney Girls High School.

An avid writer throughout her life, Jill Hellyer has been a consistent contributor of poetry and prose to literary magazines such as Southerly, Overland, Meanjin and Heat. She helped to establish the Australian Society of Authors and was its foundation secretary from 1963 to 1971. She was subsequently made a life member for her services. In 2006 she was awarded an OAM for that work and her contribution to Australian poetry. She has published three collections of verse and a novel, as well as editing a biography and compiling a collection of satirical epitaphs.

Hellyer raised three children, two of whom had significant disabilities. She now has six grand-children, and three great-grandchildren. She lives Sydney where she continues to write poetry.

Publications

The Exile - Selected Verse, 1969, Alpha Books.

Not Enough Savages, (Novel) Alpha Books.

Song of the Humpback Whales - Selected Verse, 1981, Sisters Publishing Ltd.

The listening Place, 2007, Ginninderra Press.

Tomb It May Concern Ed.

Themes

Hellyer's work