Maria Bonar migrated from Scotland with two nursing friends when she was twenty-one, spending her first two years in Melbourne before heading west across the Nullarbor. She gained a BA (Anthropology) from the University of Western Australia in 1986. She has lived and worked in the Kimberley, the Pilbara, the Gascoyne, the Midwest and the Wheatbelt at various times, as well as suburban Perth and Mandurah.

Former CEO of a rural Aboriginal Medical Service, nurse, social health researcher, regional domestic violence coordinator and parole officer, often travelling solo in rural and remote areas of Western Australia, she now lives in Perth.

She has co-authored a number of HIV social research publications and A Review of Literature Relating to Family and Domestic Violence in Linguistically Diverse Communities in Australia. She co-authored a health promotion play, titled Love Life, with five Aboriginal Health Workers in 2000, which was performed and filmed in Carnarvon, then later used as a health promotion and training resource.

Maria writes poetry, short fiction and creative nonfiction. Her writing has appeared in Award Winning Australian Writing 2015, Creatrix, Catchment: Poetry of Place, Bronze Quill Winners Anthology, Poetry d’Amour, Stringybark Stories, P76 Rochford Street Review, Verge 25, Australian Poetry Collaboration #39, Green Ink Poetry, Brushstrokes, BootsnAll, and numerous anthologies and online publications in Australia and overseas. She is the winner of the Stringybark Erotic Short Fiction Award 2014, Bronze Quill Award for Creative Nonfiction 2015, Creatrix Poetry Prize 2024 and the Fresh Water Poetry Prize 2025.

Maria has been a member of The Society of Women Writers WA since 2011 and has previously been Vice Chairperson, Media Officer and Newsletter Editor. In 2017, she was awarded Life Membership.

Her first poetry collection, ‘Whipping Peerie’ (Wild Weeds Press) was published in 2026 and can be purchased from maria.bonar@iinet.net.au