AustLit

Gina Schien was born to parents from West Germany. She grew up in a migrant hostel in Maroubra, Sydney. Schien studied Professional Writing and Women's Literature as part of a Bachelor of Arts (Communications) degree at the New South Wales Institute of Technology. She has worked as a journalist at the National Times and wrote the text for the photography / travel book Billington's Sydney (2004).

Schien's short fiction has been published in several Australian journals and anthologies, and she interviewed women rock musicians for Missing in Action : Australian Popular Music in Perspective, Volume 1 (1987). Her play, 'Relative Comfort', was first performed at the New Theatre, Sydney, in 1999. Another of her plays, 'Charlie's Window', was performed at the Newtown Theatre, Sydney in 2007.