Born in Asmara, Eritrea and raised in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Helen Kassa grew up reading the works of legendary Ethiopian writers and poets. While most children were playing, Helen was busy reading or listening to poetry and fiction dramas on the local radio program. She first picked up a pencil to write poetry when she was seven years old, writing a few lines of poems for her school assignment.
In the years to come, Helen wrote several fictions and poems, which were read at school, church, radio and children’s TV. Helen perused her dream of becoming a writer, poet and filmmaker here in Australia, enrolling in the Film and Television production degree programme at SAE Institute of Melbourne. She is also a graduate of the Footscray Community Arts Centres’ Emerging Cultural Leadership program (2011).
