Biography
Chris Mansell (b 1953 ) is an Australian poet. She was active in Sydney in the 1970s and 1980s as an editor and poet and since the 1980s has lived in regional Australia where she continues to write, perform, and edit.
In 1978 she founded Compass poetry & prose a little magazine which published many of the young Australian poets of the time. She closed the magazine in 1987 and soon after, was a member of the collective which founded Five Islands Press.
Like many poets of her generation, she makes her living by performing her work, publishing and teaching writing at various institutions. Although primarily a poet she has also written a number of plays including Some Sunny Day. Always interested in experimentation with form, she now also works in digital media. She founded PressPress, a small independent poetry publisher in 2002.
Collections of poetry: Mortifications & Lies (Kardoorair, Armidale, 2005); Fickle Brat (audio + text) (IP Digital, Brisbane, 2002); Stalking the Rainbow (PressPress, 2002); Day Easy Sunlight Fine in Hot Collation (Penguin, Melbourne, 1995); Shining Like a Jinx (Amelia, Calif., USA, 1992); Raptors Blue (audio) (Well Sprung Productions, Sydney, 1989) with music by Rob Cousins; Redshift/Blueshift (Five Islands Press, Wollongong, 1988); Head, Heart & Stone (Fling Poetry, Melbourne, 1982).
Smaller publications: poem about the road (2004), [five n twenty] (2004), Fantasy suite (2000), honey honey (1999), On Edge (1998), the other river (1998), Death of a poet (1988), Being there at the birth (1998), Epitaphs (1998), Words on Words (1998), The event horizon (1992), On the railway near the sea (1992), Zoom poems (1988), Taking heart (1987), Delta (1978).
Children's book: Little Wombat (New Holland, Sydney, 1996)
