Anita Slotte-Kumar belonged to the Swedish-speaking minority in Finland. She wrote poetry as a child, writing in Swedish (Finland's second language) and started publishing poetry as a teenager. She won prizes for her poetry and her prose writing. From 1961 to 1966 she studied singing and piano at the Music Academy in Helsinki. In 1966-9 she studied on scholarship in the Opera School at the West Berlin Music Academy. She lived in Germany, Sweden and Italy before coming to Australia. She learned to write poetry in languages other than her native tongue, and has written in German, Italian. She began to write in English in 1987. She has been a member of The Parks Writers' Group.
