Louise Nicholas is still waiting to bloom. In the meantime, she writes poetry. She too has a poem in Best Australian Poems 2005 and she has performed her work at various festivals, fundraisers and frivolous affairs in Adelaide, rural South Australia and interstate. Like Rob, Louise is a primary school teacher.
With a background that included Yugoslav, Scottish and English heritage, Jude Aquilina grew up in Magill, South Australia. She matriculated at Norwood High School and has worked at various jobs, from Singing Telegrams to Telecom. She married Daniel Aquilina in 1987 and it was after the birth of their two children that she began writing poetry. Later she began to write short fiction. She has worked part time in a music shop, has worked in mixed media performance groups such as Stagefright and Catapult, and has read at a number of venues. Daniel, who is a pianist, often provides musical accompaniment to her poetry. She lived at Cudlee Creek in the Adelaide Hills, taught poetry and creative writing in schools and to adult groups, and served as a mentor for young poets.
Rick Atkinson lives in Adelaide where he was born in 1943. He spent a great deal of his life teaching architecture and urban design until recently, when he cut loose to find more diverse ways of pursuing his interest in urban life. The latest of these has been an invitation from Jude and Louise to sketch his responses to some of the poems in WomanSpeak. Rick still maintains his urban design teaching through annual design studios in both Adelaide and Penang.