Eldest of four children of Ron and Ivy Brinkworth, Llewellyn was born Kathleen Jill Brinkworth in 1936 in Tumby Bay on Eyre Peninsula, South Australia. Llewellyn trained at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, graduating as a registered nurse in 1958. From 1965 to 1972 she owned and directed the Llewellyn Galleries, Dulwich, Adelaide and from 1971 to 1972 the Bonython Galleries, North Adelaide. She graduated from the University of Adelaide with a BA in history and classics in 1978. Llewellyn worked on the Unley Planning Study 1978 and in 1979 worked in the Women's Advisory Unit of the SA Premier's Department. In 1960 she married Richard Llewellyn, with whom she had two children. The couple divorced in 1972. Llewellyn began writing as an undergraduate. In addition to her poetry, she has written book reviews, criticisms and essays for Australian poetry and prose anthologies, magazines and newspapers and also on travel, gardening, food and people. Llewellyn is a regular speaker at Writers' Festivals, including the 2015 Adelaide Writers' Week. She has also taught creative writing courses and been writer-in-residence at a number of colleges, universities and writers' centres across Australia.
Recognition
Australian Writers, 1975-2000 edited by Selina Samuels includes a biography of Llewellyn by Dorothy Jones. In 2005 Llewellyn received a valued at $80,000 to write an autobiography and book of poems.
Awards
2006 Australian Book of the Year for Playing with Water diary
1982 Joint Winner, Anne Elder Award for Trader Kate and the Elephants
1975 for Teeth and Other Verses Selected work poetry
A Fig at the Gate: The Joys of Friendship, Gardening and the Gaining of Wisdom
First Things First: Selected Letters of Kate Llewellyn 1977-2004, edited by Ruth Bacchus & Barbara Hill
Selected contributions
In 1982 three of Llewellyn’s short stories – "The Balts", "Gone" and "I Am My Own Companion" – were published in Frictions, an Anthology of Fiction by Women, edited by Anna Gibbs and Alison Tilson. Her short story for Room to Move: The Redress Press Book of Australian Women's Short Stories edited by Suzanne Falkiner was one of 32 chosen from over 700 submissions. She is represented in The New Oxford Book of Australian Verse Chosen by Les A Murray. One of her poems, "To a Married Man", appears in 60 Classic Australian Poems, with commentaries by Geoff Page. It originally appeared in her award-winning book, Trader Kate and the Elephants. Her poem, "Finished", from Selected Poems, was selected by John Leonard for inclusion in Australian Verse: An Oxford Anthology. Places in the heart: thirty prominent Australians reveal their special corners of the world, edited and compiled by Susan Kurosawa includes her "Endless Horizons".
