Suzanne Yanko's father emigrated from Yugoslavia in the 1930s. Since receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree from The University of Western Australia (1969), a Trained Secondary Teacher's certificate (TSTC), Melbourne Secondary Teachers' College (1970) and a Graduate Diploma in Multicultural Education, Armidale College of Advanced Education (1981), Yanko has workerd as an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher.
She has published short stories, contributed frequently to The Age and The Herald-Sun newspapers and held membership of the Fellowship of Australian Writers. She was also the founder and chief editor of Classic Melbourne.
She died in April 2022 as a result of long-term Parkinson's Disease.
