 Gare won a Walkley Award for her work as an editor of "The Australian’s Review of Books" (now "Australian Literary Review").Gare was born Helen Shelley Gare in Carnarvon, Western Australia in 1952, the fourth and youngest child of public servant Frank Ellis Gare (Commissioner for Native Welfare for the State of Western Australia) and artist and novelist Nene Gare.Her brother is Arran Gare, a metaphysician and environmental philosopher, and her sister is Leif Frances, a qualified nursing sister.