At age sixteen Janeen Brian trained as a primary teacher and at eighteen stood in front of her first class of year five students. Her teaching career saw her work in junior primary, primary, drama and as a teacher-librarian.

While raising a family, she began a four-year career with a professional children’s theatre company, both acting and writing. She has also been involved in over 100 television and radio commercials as well as dozens of voiceovers for radio and video. She began dabbling in writing in her thirties.

Since then she has written over 100 books both in trade and education, and in genres ranging from picture books to poetry, short fiction, nonfiction and novels. Janeen is an award-winning author and poet and many of her books have been translated and published overseas.

Anne Spudvilas is a multi-award-winning illustrator of children's books and an established portrait painter and printmaker. Her first picture book, The Race by Christobel Mattingley, was awarded the Crichton Award for Illustration and was a CBCA Honour Book.

Her bestselling books include The Peasant Prince by Li Cunxin, which won the NSW and Queensland Premiers' Awards in 2008 and Jenny Angel by Margaret Wild which was CBCA Picture Book of the Year in 2000.

Anne's move to the Murray River has inspired her latest book, an illustrated retelling of the classic ballet story Swan Lake. Anne lives in Wentworth, where the Murray and Darling rivers meet, surrounded by birds and river red gums.