Heidi Chopey was born in Seitenberg, Silesia (formerly Germany), in 1920. In 1946 the entire population of her homeland was forced to flee and after five years as a refugee in Austria she arrived in Australia. She was educated at Notre Dame College in Sudetenland, won a scholarship to study music at the Conservatorium in Breslau, and studied art at the German University in Prague, Czechoslovakia. As a student she wrote articles for the student newspapers and local papers. She has read her work at the 'European Concert', as well as in 1987 at the the Migrant Resource Centre, Brisbane, the 'Fiesta', Musgrave Park, South Brisbane and the Estonian Club, Brisbane. In 1988 she read at the Fiesta, the Migrant Resource Centre, the Brisbane Writers' Readings and Poets on the River and in 1990 at National Refugee Week, City Hall, Brisbane. She has been a regular reader at meetings of the Queensland Multicultural Association and for Senior Citizens Week in Brisbane. Her work has received many commendations and prizes including the 1992 Gerhard Hauptman Prize.