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.

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.

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.

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.

Moniza Alvi was born in Pakistan and grew up in Hertfordshire. After working for many years as a secondary school teacher in London, she is now a freelance writer and tutor, and lives in Wymondham, Norfolk. Her latest books are At the Time of Partition (Bloodaxe Books, 2013), her new book-length poem; Homesick for the Earth, her versions of the French poet Jules Supervielle (Bloodaxe Books, 2011); Europa (Bloodaxe Books, 2008); and Split World: Poems 1990-2005 (Bloodaxe Books, 2008), which includes poems from her five previous collections, The Country at My Shoulder (1993), A Bowl of Warm Air (1996), Carrying My Wife (2000), Souls (2002) and How the Stone Found Its Voice (2005). The Country at My Shoulder was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot and Whitbread poetry prizes, and Carrying My Wife was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. Europa was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize. Moniza Alvi received a Cholmondeley Award in 2002. At the Time of Partition is a Poetry Book Society Choice and is shortlisted for the 2013 T. S. Eliot Prize.