Cirrus@Austlit

Spinadel was born to Russian Jewish parents who converted to Russian Orthodoxy. In 1953 she married an American with whom she had three children. When the marriage ended in divorce, her husband left with the children. Spinadel later married a Franco-Vietnamese man and migrated to Australia. She raised the child from that marriage as a single parent.

Spinadel graduated from the University of New South Wales with a BA (Hons.) in French and Drama. She also has a post-graduate Diploma in Creative Writing from the University of the Northern Territory and is a graduate of the School of Interpreters (Geneva University).

Her short essay on poetry from France appears in the anthology Many Voices.

(Source: 'From Paris to Sydney with Love' by Irina Spinadel, Newswrite : The NSW Writers' Centre Magazine, no.135 March 2004.)