Ali Cobby Eckermann

is an Aboriginal author and poet. She was born on Kaurna Country, and grew up on Ngadjuri country South Australia. She has travelled extensively and lived most of her adult life on Arrernte country, Jawoyn country and Larrakia country in the Northern Territory. Eckermann met her birth mother, Audrey, when she was in her 30s and learnt that her mob was Yankunytjatjara from north-west South Australia. Eckermann’s first book of poetry Little Bit Long Time was published by the Australian Poetry Centre as part of the New Poets series in 2009. Her poetry reflects her journey to reconnect with her Yankunytjatjara/Kokatha family.

Her  first collection little bit long time (Australian Poetry Centre, 2009) was written in the desert and launched her literary career in 2009. Her works have been published in various languages, and she has travelled widely to showcase Aboriginal poetry overseas. In 2013 Ali toured Ireland as Australian Poetry Ambassador and won the Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry (NSW) for Ruby Moonlight (Magabala Books, 2012), a massacre verse novel. She was the inaugural recipient of the Tungkunungka Pintyanthi Fellowship, and invited to attend the International Writing Program at University of Iowa in 2014. Her memoir Too Afraid To Cry (Illura Press, 2013) was launched in New Delhi India in 2015, on her way to Jaipur Literature Festival. Ali retains her dream for an Aboriginal Writers Retreat, to promote the volume of Aboriginal grassroots voices, and for healing.

Ali’s publications include  A Handful of Sand: Aboriginal edition of Southerly (co-edited with peer Lionel Fogarty: 2013), Love dreaming and other poems (Vagabond Press: 2012), His Fathers Eyes (Oxford Uni Press: 2011), I Tell You True and other poems (translated/published in Tefoma Magazine Greece: 2011), Intervention Pay Back (Being Human Bloodaxe Books London 2011).

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