Cirrus@Austlit

Alison Lyssa adopted the surname 'Lyssa' when searching for a name to go with her poems in Kate Jennings's (q.v.) anthology Mother I'm Rooted. Lyssa took the name from a dictionary of mythology.

Lyssa's plays have been performed since the early 1980s, during which time she was Director of the Australian Centre of the International Theatre Institute and Education Officer at the State Library of New South Wales. In 1988 Lyssa was a speaker on the 'Lesbian Playwrights' panel at the First International Women Playwrights Conference in Buffalo, USA. Some of Lyssa's lyrics have been set to music by singer, Judy Small.

In 1992 Lyssa undertook the Scriptwriting Extension Course at the Australian Film Television and Radio School and she was awarded a Developing Writer's Fellowship by the Australia Council in 1997.