Cynan Jones was born in 1975 near Aberaeron, Wales where he now lives and works. He is the author of five short novels, The Long Dry, Everything I Found on the Beach, Bird, Blood, Snow, The Dig, and Cove.

He has been longlisted and shortlisted for numerous prizes and won a Society of Authors Betty Trask Award 2007, a Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize 2014, the Wales Book of the Year Fiction Prize 2015 and the BBC National Short Story Award 2017.

His short fiction has been widely published in anthologies and publications including Granta Magazine and The New Yorker.

Benjamin Markovits grew up in Texas, London and Berlin. He is the author of seven previous novels: The Syme Papers, Either Side of Winter, Imposture, A Quiet Adjustment, Playing Days, Childish Loves, and You Don't Have To Live Like This.

He has published essays, stories, poetry and reviews on subjects ranging from the Romantics to American sports in the Guardian, Granta, The Paris Review and The New York Times, among other publications. He lives in London and teaches creative writing at Royal Holloway, University of London.

Jenni Fagan was born in Scotland. She graduated from Greenwich University and won a scholarship to the Royal Holloway MFA programme. She has just completed her PhD at the University of Edinburgh.

A published poet and novelist, she has won awards from Creative Scotland, Dewar Arts, Scottish Screen and Scottish Book Trust among others, and has twice been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Jenni was selected as one of Granta's Best Young British Novelists after the publication of her debut novel, The Panopticon, which was shortlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize and the James Tait Black Prize.

Her adaptation of The Panopticon was staged by the National Theatre of Scotland to great acclaim. The Sunlight Pilgrims, her second novel, was shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature Encore Award and the Saltire Fiction Book of the Year Award, and saw her win Scottish Author of the Year at the Herald Culture Awards. She lives in Edinburgh with her son.

Helen Oyeyemi is the author of The Icarus Girl, The Opposite House, White is for Witching (which won the Somerset Maugham Award), Mr Fox and the short story collection What is Not Yours is Not Yours.

In 2013, Helen was included in Granta's Best of Young British Novelists.

Will Eaves is the author of five novels, including Murmur, and two collections of poems. Previously Arts Editor of the Times Literary Supplement, he now teaches writing at the University of Warwick. His work has appeared in the Guardian and the New Yorker and been shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award and the Encore Award. Murmur won the Republic of Consciousness Prize and the 2019 Wellcome Prize and was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize and longlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize.