As well as writing, Joyce Parkes edited 65 editions of the Fellowship of Australian Writers (W.A.) Newsletter from October of 1982 to June of 1988. In 1989, she was a foundation member of the International P. E. N., Perth Centre, and from this time until 1995, she worked as an archivist for the Centre. During this time Joyce Parkes also acted in the office of Vice-President (1991-1992) and President (1992-1993) of the Perth P. E. N. Centre.
Her poetry has been read and recited particularly in Perth, Adelaide, Darwin, Northern Ireland, New York, N.Y., Vancouver, B. C. and Wivenhoe, UK. Her first works were written and self published using the pseudonym J.E. Dubois, a family name.
Joyce Parkes' mother was Dutch and her father was Jewish-Dutch/Indonesian. Her first language was Dutch and she migrated to Australia from Holland with her Dutch husband and two children in November 1955. She settled in Darlington, in Western Australia's Darling Ranges, where she lived - on and off - for 38 years. In 1997 she moved to Ballajura, a northern suburb of Perth.
