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.