AustLit

In the author's prologue to her book of poetry Entre dos mundos (1981), Marta Alfonso-Bowes writes that she was born in a Spanish-speaking country and spent the first years of her life in Barcelona, Spain, San Juan, Puerto Rico and Perpignan, France. She completed a Bachelors degree in Spanish in Puerto Rico and a Masters degree at the University of Kansas.

In Australia, Marta Alfonso-Bowes lectured at Monash University and the University of New South Wales. Her poems and prose won prizes from the Spanish Club in Sydney in the 1970s and '80s.

Her death in the Northern Territory in 1995 received extensive media coverage, in association with the debate at the time over 'The Rights of the Terminally Ill Bill' which had been introduced into federal parliament in February of that year. Following her death, the Northern Territory Voluntary Euthanasia Society announced a memorial award in her name for a poem/essay on voluntary euthanasia. [Sources: Poemario and 'Delivering death down under' at http://www.euthanasia.cc/96-3nt.html; see also 'Marta's death sparks law call,' Northern Territory News, 9 Oct 1995; 1, 2; and 'Voluntary euthanasia - Australia. News in brief'. Monash Bioethics Review 1996; 15: 3- 4.]