Joanna (van Kool) trained first at The Royal Central School for Drama in London. On graduation she came to Australia and worked free-lance for the ABC Education and Drama Departments in Queensland ...view moreJoanna (van Kool) trained first at The Royal Central School for Drama in London. On graduation she came to Australia and worked free-lance for the ABC Education and Drama Departments in Queensland and taught Drama at both Primary and Secondary levels before teaching English, History and Drama for over twenty years at various Secondary Schools in both Queensland and New South Wales. She gained her Masters in Creative Writing at Sydney University where she was lucky enough to have the late Dr Noel Rowe as her tutor in poetry. In 2014 she self- published an historical novel 'The Followers' about three generations of women in her family and she has recently completed another novel inspired by her environmental concerns. While she has always written in one form or another she finds poetry gives her both a challenge and satisfaction in its necessity for the most careful choice of words.view less