Cirrus@Austlit

After graduating from Newcastle University College with first-class honours, Anna Rutherford travelled to England where she worked as a school teacher. In 1966 she accepted a lectureship in Commonwealth literature at the University of Aarhus, in Denmark. Continuing to develop the program after the death of its founder, Greta Hort, Rutherford began to organise conferences on Commonwealth literature and established the Commonwealth Newsletter in 1971 for members of the European Association for Commonwealth Language and Literature Study. In 1979, aiming to include creative writing and art, the newsletter changed format and was renamed Kunapipi.

Kunapipi is one of the oldest and most well-respected forums for the discussion of Commonwealth (or postcolonial) literature. In addition, it has published the work of creative writers from many Commonwealth countries, including India, the Caribbean, Africa, Singapore, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. Australian writers who have appeared in Kunapipi include Mark O'Connor, Randolph Stow, Les Murray, Frank Moorhouse, Judith Rodriguez, Thomas Shapcott, Marion Halligan, Antigone Kefala, Beverley Farmer, Ouyang Yu, Thea Astley, Kate Grenville, Jennifer Strauss and Yasmine Gooneratne{w). A special 1988 issue on Aboriginal culture included contributions from Oodgeroo, Mudrooroo, Stephen Muecke, Sally Morgan and Archie Weller.

Rutherford returned to Sydney in 1996, bringing Kunapipi and her successful Dangaroo Press with her. After Rutherford's death in 2001, Anne Collett was appointed editor. Kunapipi has been based at the University of Wollongong since that time, maintaining an influential position in Commonwealth studies.