Ann Sansom is a poet, playwright and tutor. She has published six collections of poetry, including two with Bloodaxe Books, Romance (1994) and In Praise of Men and other people (2003). She has had work published in several Forward/Faber anthologies, Russian Vogue and a range of other publications and has written and directed plays for stage and radio. She is currently working with The British Film Institute on a series of commissioned film-related poems and is writing a screenplay for a further series of short films.

Ann is a regular tutor for WEA, Poetry Society and Arvon Foundation and has taught at Oxford, Leeds and Sheffield Hallam universities. She regularly works in schools and tutors at school writing residentials, teaching children of all ages and abilities, and has run a weekly writers' workshop at Doncaster YWCA for twenty years. She is also a director of The Poetry Business, which publishes 'The North' magazine and Smith/Doorstop books. She lives in Sheffield.

Jacob Sam-La Rose was born in London in 1976. He was managing director of a web development studio before becoming a freelance writer and editor. He is the Artistic Director of the London Teenage Poetry SLAM, Editor-in-Chief of Metaroar.com, and an editor for flipped eye press. He also facilitates a range of literature-in-education, creative writing and spoken word programmes through schools, arts centres and other institutions.

His work has appeared in many anthologies and journals, including Identity Parade: New British & Irish Poets (Bloodaxe), Poems For Love (Penguin), I Have Found a Song (Enitharmon Press), Red (Peepal Tree), Learn Then Burn: The Ultimate Poetry Guide for the High School or College Classroom (Write Bloody) and Michael Rosen’s A-Z: The Best Children’s Poetry from Agard to Zephaniah (Puffin). His pamphlet Communion was a Poetry Book Society Pamphlet Choice in 2006. Breaking Silence (Bloodaxe Books, 2011), his first book-length collection, is shortlisted for both the Forward Prize for Best First Collection and the Fenton Aldeburgh First Collection Prize 2012.

Eva Salzman was born in 1960 in New York City, and grew up in Brooklyn where – from the age of 10 until 22 – she was a dancer and later a choreographer. She was educated at Bennington College and Columbia University, moving to Britain in 1985. She now lives in London. Her eclectic background has led to work in cross-arts projects with artists, dancers and singers. Her teaching work – for children, teenagers and adults – has included projects in London’s East End and a residency at Springhill Prison as well as continuing work for the Poetry Society’s Poet in the City and Poetryclass projects and co-devising a Start Writing Poetry course for the Open University.