Robyn Ianssen was born and educated in Sydney and married a Norwegian. She was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and History from The University of Sydney, a Diploma of Education and a Master of Commerce degree in Organisational Behaviour from The University of New South Wales. A writer of poetry, fiction and non-fiction, Ianssen has worked also as a film scriptwriter, photographer, publisher and translator of literary works from Danish . Her poetry and prose have been published in Australia and the United Kingdom and translated and published in Poland, China and Taiwan.

In 2001 she was chair of the XXI World Congress of Poets meeting that was held in Sydney and has been a member of The Poets Union Committee since 1994, co-editing the quarterly periodical Five Bells for two years. An admirer of Chinese art, language and literature, in 1996 she published Footprints on Paper, launched at the Sydney Writers' Festival, the first bi-lingual Chinese-English anthology of poetry and prose by 30 English- and Chinese-language writers in Australia with nineteen translators. As chair of the World Congress of Poets she initiated the publication of three anthologies: Many Voices (2000) a collection of mini-histories of the poetry of over thirty countries by writers in Australia about their countries of origin; The Opening of Borders (2001), poems by overseas and Australian participants at the World Congress of Poets; and Reunion an anthology by Australian members of the World Congress of Poets in 2003.

Ianssen's poetry has been published in a number of anthologies and literary journals and she has worked hard to build bridges between writers of all languages in Australia, especially with the Chinese writers' associations.