Kristopher Saknussemm was born of an Icelandic father and an English mother. He left the United States in 1984 and became a resident of Australia. A professional writer, Saknussemm has won awards in Australia as well as several awards in the United States including a Stegman International Writing Fellowship. He has completed both a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Master of Arts degree in English Studies. His work has been read on Newcastle television and he has read at public forums in Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney and Newcastle between 1984 and 1990, on the 1988 performance art tour of Japan, Canada and Europe and at the New York Arts Festival in 1989.
In the words of the author in biographical text provided for the Library of Congress: 'Founder of the guerilla theater group called the False Frontier Society, he staged a series of "resurrection performances" in derelict industrial sites in Melbourne and Sydney, until a near fall from scaffolding almost claimed his life.'
Saknussemm divides his time between a rural property in the old goldfields area outside Melbourne and the West Coast of America. He is a painter and sculptor as well as a writer.
