After arriving in Australia in 1959, Yota Krili-Kevans worked in factories and at various other jobs while gaining a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Diploma of Education from the University of Sydney. She has taught with the New South Wales (NSW) Department of Education, contributing greatly to encouraging the teaching of modern Greek in NSW schools. In 1997 Krili-Kevans was awarded an Australia Council Literature Fund prize of $5,000 for her translation of Women of the Sun (1983) from English into Greek.