Anna Couani

Anna Couani (born 6 April 1948) is a contemporary Australian poet and visual artist.

Couani was born and grew up in Sydney, the eldest of four children of medical doctors John Couani and Stefania Siedlecky. Her families have Greek and Polish heritage. She studied architecture at the University of Sydney, then took a Diploma of Education (Art) at Sydney Teachers' College and later, an MA in Teaching English as a Second Language from the University of Technology Sydney.

Couani became interested in experimental writing in the 1970s, which led to her meeting artists and writers including Robert Kenny, Ken Bolton, Rae Jones and Kris Hemensley. Her first collection of poems, Italy, was published in 1977. She was an editor with Ken Bolton for a journal of experimental writing, Magic Sam. In the 2000s, she published the poetry collections Small Wonders (2011), thinking process (2017) And local (2021). Her work has appeared in many anthologies of prose and poetry.

Since 2014, she has run The Shop Gallery in Glebe with her husband, sculptor Hilik Mirankar.

Works Prose Italy. (Melbourne : Rigmarole, 1977) Were all Women Sex-mad? & Other stories. (Melbourne : Rigmarole, 1982) Leaving Queensland & The Train. (Sydney: Sea Cruise Books 1983) Italy & The Train. (Melbourne: Rigmarole 1984) The Harbour Breathes with photomontages by Peter Lyssiotis (Sydney & Melbourne: Sea Cruise/Masterthief Enterprises, 1989) The Western Horizon novel serialised in HEAT magazine 1996-2000. Available online at https://www.annacouani.com/the-harbour-breathes Poetry Small Wonders. with Chinese translation & drawings by Sou Vai Keng (Macao & Markwell: Flying Islands Books, 2011) thinking process. (Melbourne: Owl Publishing, 2017) local. with images by the author (Markwell: Flying Islands Pocket Poets, 2021)

Edited Island in the Sun : An anthology of recent Australian prose with Damien White & Tom Thompson (Sydney: Sea Cruise Books, 1980) Island in the Sun 2: An anthology of recent Australian prose with Damien White (Sydney: Sea Cruise Books, 1980) Minute to Midnight: New Writing for Peace and Disarmament. with Carmel Kelly, Kit Kelen & Mark Roberts (Sydney: Red Spark Books 1985) Telling Ways: Australian women's experimental writing with Sneja Gunew (Adelaide : Australian Feminist Studies, 1988) Falling Angels, (a Cordite Chapbook 2012) To End all Wars. with Dael Allison, Kit Kelen & Les Wicks (Puncher & Wattmann 2018)