Mike Ladd was born in 1959 in Berkeley California to Australian parents. He grew up at Blackwood in the Adelaide hills, did a degree in English and Philosophy at Adelaide University, then in 1980 joined the new wave band The Lounge. Mike has often collaborated with musicians and artists, writing poetry for the screen and live performance with groups such as The Drum Poets, newaural net, and Max Mo.

In 1983 he began working at the ABC as a sound engineer, joining Radio National as producer in 1993. He was the editor of the station’s highly respected program Poetica, which ran for eighteen years and brought Australian and international poetry to a wide audience. After the demise of Poetica, he worked as a producer of history documentaries for Radio National until he retired from the ABC in 2022. 

He began reading at Adelaide’s Friendly Street Poets in 1976 and his first book was published by Friendly Street in 1984. Since then, Mike has published eleven collections of poetry and prose, including : Karrawirra Parri, Walking the Torrens from Source to Sea , Invisible Mending, and the just published Now Then New and Selected Poems, all from Wakefield Press.