Raised from Catholic stock, Cusack was educated at St. Ursula’s Convent in Armidale. Her constant questioning and unwillingness to accept everything that she was told led her to being labelled a “heretic”, but she did not lose her faith until she entered university.

Her novels and plays deal with universal issues such as the treatment of minority groups and nuclear weapons… a writer very much commited to Australian people and problems, Dymphna Cusack is read most enthusiastically overseas. It is to be hoped that the Griffin Theatre’s forthcoming production will generate new interest in this fascinating individual."

Education, June 2, 1986