Ana Dean
Ana Dean (pseudonym) is an Australian author who grew up the youngest of three girls in a Croatian migrant household in the Melbourne suburb of Altona North. Ana hadn’t always planned on becoming an author, even though writing was always her best friend. When her sister ran away, Ana was just a teenager. It was the ‘80s and no one; not the police, nor the system, nor her parents, nor she knew how to cope. As a fifteen-year-old girl, she turned to her journals for comfort and as a means of sorting through her thoughts, theories, fears and sometimes just dates, times and mundane facts. There was always that nagging fear that some day her sister would die and not be counted for and she would need documented evidence to prove that her life was worth something.
Twenty-five years later, these journals formed the basis for a book that she felt compelled to write, both to expose the truth of her sister’s story and to help others who might benefit from reading it.
Ana’s parents encouraged her involvement in their local Croatian-Australian community and nurtured her curiosity about the family’s history and politically troubled heritage. As a result of that early exposure to the struggles faced by this migrant group, both in their country of origin and in their country of refuge, Ana cultivated longstanding interests in history, sociology, immigration, justice and politics. Today Ana lives with her husband and a feral cat called Pus; a sweet, but sassy feline who adopted herself into their family five years ago.
To contact Ana, please email at
annie.vedom@live.com.au.
Life in, and connection to, Hobsons Bay
I was born and raised in the western suburbs of Melbourne, Williamstown to Altona North. This simply is a dear place to me and will always be my home.
Works
Waiting for Danica: My Sister My Story (JoJo Publishing, 2015).