Neilma Sidney is a pseudonym used by Neilma Gantner. She was born in San Francisco, the daughter of Sidney and Merlyn (née Baillieu) Myer. She completed her tertiary education at the Universities of Melbourne and Stanford. In 1941 she married Vallejo Gantner with whom she had two sons, but they later divorced. As Neilma Sidney, she worked as a novelist, poet and short story writer, publishing her first collection of short stories in 1959. By 1986 she had published three novels, a further two collections of short stories and a travel book. With her son Carillo and brother Baillieu Myer, she established The Gantner Myer Collection of Australian Aboriginal Art. Assembled over a four-year period by curator Jennifer Isaacs, the collection was unveiled in San Francisco in September 1999. She has been a member of the Executive of International Social Service, and of the Myer Foundation and the Sidney Myer Fund. A long-term resident of Bermagui, New South Wales, she co-founded in that township the Four Winds Cultural Festival.
