Bessie Jennings was born into a dairy-farming family in New South Wales, and she has lived in regional New South Wales, in Sydney's western suburbs and in Port Macquarie. She has worked in school teaching, library management and relationship counselling. In 1996 she began entering literary competitions, and since then she has been a member of the Hastings-Macleay Bush Poets' group, and has recited her bush poetry in Port Macquarie and in a number of eisteddfods and competitions.
