The Dictionary is the sum of contributions by authors (over 150 of them so far), artists (photographers and painters mostly, so far), institutions (many of them national treasures), and companies such as Airview who have kindly allowed us to use their wonderful aerial photos. Being such a generous and talented bunch, our contributors usually have other irons in the fire. Here's a shout out to some of them.

Louise Hawson, whose work illustrates several Dictionary articles, has a book out from University of New South Wales Press in May and an exhibition at the Museum of Sydney from May 14. Both are based on her quest to photograph a suburb a week for a year, and she certainly found beauty in some surprising places. You can see her work at her blog, 52 suburbs, and pre-order the book here.

Mark St Leon, author of Circus, has a new book on Australian circus out from Melbourne Books in May, which you can pre-order here. Mark's work has featured on the blog before, and you should check out some of the film he provided for his Dictionary article, including Con Colleano on the tightwire in 1939,  and his own family, the Five Riding St Leons. More film and many wonderful still images from Mark's collection appear in the Circus article.

Danny Huynh, whose vivid and fascinating photographs enrich a number of Dictionary articles about Sydney's varied cultural communities,  has an exhibition, titled Pride and Passion: Photographic Portraits of Fairfield, on now at the  Fairfield City Museum and Gallery until May 15. Last but not least, our colleague, Laila Ellmoos, historian with the City of Sydney History program, received two highly commended awards in the 2011 National Trust Heritage Awards, for three publications she wrote and edited while she was at the Government Architect's Office. Along with another prolific author, Mark Dunn, Laila writes the blog Scratching Sydney's Surface, and both of them appear regularly on Fbi Radio, live at 8.15 on Fridays, and streamed on the net. The Dictionary is very lucky to have so many wonderful contributors. Wishing them every success is the least we can do!