Maureen Almond graduated with an MA in poetry from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 2002 and gained the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in recognition of a thesis entitled ‘What Use is Poetry?’ on 10th October, 2013. She works in schools and communities and as an Adult Education tutor.

Maureen Almond's poetry collection Recollections was published in 2008. It features photography by Glyn Goodrick, and was commissioned by the Director of Archaeological Museums for Newcastle University, Lindsay Allason-Jones.

David Almond is a British author who has written several novels for children and young adults from 1998. He won the Carnegie Medal for his debut novel Skellig in 1998; two Whitbread Awards; the U.S. Michael L. Printz Award for young-adult books for the novel Kit's Wilderness; the Smarties Prize, ages 9–11 years and the U.S. Boston Globe–Horn Book Award, Children's Fiction for the novel The Fire-Eaters; and the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize for the novel A Song for Ella Grey.

He has also won the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award. For the 70th anniversary of the British Carnegie Medal in 2007, his debut novel Skellig (1998) was named one of the top ten Medal-winning works, selected by a panel to compose the ballot for a public election of the all-time favourite. It ranked third in the public vote from that shortlist.

Maram al-Masri was born in Latakia, Syria, in 1962, and has lived in France since 1982. She has published three collections in Arabic, and her poems have been translated into many languages, with books published in French and Spanish.

Gillian Allnutt was born in London but spent much of her childhood in Newcastle upon Tyne, and now lives in Co. Durham. Her collections Nantucket and the Angel and Lintel were both shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize, and Lintel was a Poetry Book Society Choice. Her Bloodaxe retrospective, How the Bicycle Shone: New & Selected Poems (2007), draws on six published books plus a new collection, Wolflight, and was a Poetry Book Society Special Commendation. Her latest collection is indwelling (2013). She has also published Berthing: A Poetry Workbook (NEC/Virago, 1991), and was co-editor of The New British Poetry (Paladin, 1988) and formerly poetry editor of City Limits. She received the Northern Rock Foundation Writer's Award in 2005.

Joseph Allen, also known as Gary Allen, was born in Ballymena, County Antrim in 1961.

His first poetry collection, Languages was published in 2002, and a second poetry collection, Landscaping , was published in 2003.