Catherine Johns was born of Romany (gypsy) parents. She lives in the Adelaide Hills, and as well as being a writer and poet she is a "photographer (exhibiting every two years) gardener, masseuse, aromatherapist and lecturer" (Southern Write Oct 2000, p. 5). She has worked as a journalist for Cleo and Pol and and as a documentary film-maker in the Northern Territory, New Guinea and China. She says of herself that she is "proudly Lesbian, Feminist and a Gypsy", and has been published in Feminist, Lesbian and Music magazines, and academically.