Cirrus@Austlit

Stanley had previously been an English teacher and an educational psychologist before becoming Promotions and Development Director at Dromkeen, home of the Australian Children's Literature Collection, in 1985. She moved to Perth in 1990, where she began writing and illlustrating children's stories. As a child she had made her own 'comics', illustrating her adolescent tragic-adventure plots. She travelled and researched widely, keeping detailed diaries, which were to become a source of inspiration for her work, and using her experience of distilling text for her poetry, to write for children.