Alan Jefferies grew up in Cleveland on the Queensland coast and later lived in Sydney and Coalcliff. He was awarded degrees in Communication and Writing from the University of Technology, Sydney and a Post Graduate Diploma in Librarianship from the University of New South Wales. Jefferies worked for many years as a librarian for the Workers Educational Association in Sydney. He also spent time as an audio-visual officer with the Department of Architecture at the University of Sydney.
Jefferies published his first poems in 1976 and since then has been published in magazines and newspapers both in Australia and overseas. In 1998 he moved to Hong Kong. He was one of the initiators of a monthly spoken-word event, 'OutLoud', in the Lan Kwai Fong district of Hong Kong Island, and in 2002 co-edited an anthology of poetry from the 'OutLoud' readings . In the same year he was invited to participate in the 'Moving Poetry' project which was part of the Hong Kong University's anniversary celebrations, involving conducting creative writing workshops with primary and secondary school students. In 2010, he was living in Brisbane.
(Major source: Adapted from the author's website)
