A former teacher, Anna Donald has published poetry and biographical oral histories. In 2005, she was completing a Masters Degree (Creative Writing) at the University of Western Australia and also writing a novel (for adults), set in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, while supplementing her income by running creative writing courses for adults and young people.
In 2010, she was enrolled as a PhD student at the University of Western Australia. Her thesis, titled 'Landscape, Identity, and "Belonging": The Tasmanian Landscape in Literature', will contribute to scholarship by tracing aspects of the depiction of landscape in selected key works set in Tasmania: Marcus Clarke's For The Term of his Natural Life (1870-1872), Robert Drewe's, The Savage Crows (1978), James McQueen's Hook's Mountain (1982) and Richard Flanagan's Death of a River Guide (1994).
Dr Donald's PhD was awarded in 2013.