Born in Canada, Edith Speers studied biochemistry before moving to Australia in 1974. She became a naturalised citizen six years later. In 1975 she moved to Tasmania, living on a small farm while working as a writer and astrologer.
Her first collection of poetry By Way of a Vessel was published in 1986. Speers co-edited the anthology A Writer's Tasmania (2000) which showcases stories about Tasmania by Tasmanians writing about their personal experiences on the 'remote and beautiful island'.
Her second collection Four Quarters: Poetry (2001), covering a period of over sixteen years of her work, has been described as 'feet-on-the-ground' poetry which is open and accessible to the general reader. The poems in one of the 'quarters' express Speers's love for her original home country, Canada.
Speers has taught creative writing in many Tasmanian high schools. Her work has been published in numerous anthologies of poetry, including The New Oxford Book of Australian Verse (1996) and Contemporary Australian Poetry (1990), and she has been extensively published in literary magazines in Australia and abroad.
In 2011, Speers was shortlisted for the inaugural Montreal International Poetry Prize.
