As a secondary school teacher, Erica Jolly had been writing poetry from the 1970s on, as thoughts or feelings demanded before 1992 when she left the Education Department. In 1993, she was taken to Friendly Street by Elizabeth Mansutti, and has presented her poetry there until now.

Her poem ‘Lament’ for Afghan women fleeing the return of the Taliban, was published in the Australian Refugee Association Journal. Of her first collection, in 2003, Pomegranates the late Sister Veronica Brady – biographer of Judith Wright – wrote that this collection was Erica’s contribution ‘to a different kind of political landscape.’ Her next collection Making a Stand, was launched by Professor Ian Chubb in 2015.

In April 2023 Erica Jolly was made a Life Member of Friendly Street Poets. In his address Nigel Ford, the retiring Convenor, said, ‘A good proportion of Erica’s poetry, . . .is shining a light on topical subjects, calling out inequities in our society and providing a voice of reason in often unreasonable conversations, . . . for minorities who need their causes heard. Erica is heard. She makes a difference.’