Mike Ladd was born in 1959 in Berkeley California to Australian parents and grew up at Blackwood in the Adelaide Hills. Mike is a poet, essayist and reviewer. He has published ten collections of poetry and prose, including the natural history haibun Karrawirra Parri: Walking the Torrens from source to sea (Wakefield Press, 2012) and Dream Tetras (Wakefield Press, 2022) an experimental collaboration with visual artist Cathy Brooks. Mike worked for ABC Radio for nearly forty years, firstly as a sound engineer and then as a producer of dramas and documentaries. He was the editor of Radio National's Poetica program, which brought Australian and international poetry to a wide audience.
Cathy Brooks is a South Australian artist working across the fields of graphics, painting, photography and mixed media installation. She is actively involved in community and urban arts projects often using recycled materials and collaborative processes.
She graduated from the South Australian School of Art in 1980 with a BA in photography and sculpture and completed a Master of Visual Art and Design in painting in 2007 at UniSA.
Since the 1980s Cathy has had multiple solo and group exhibitions. Her work is held by the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Mortlock Library and in private collections.