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.

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.

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.