Kristen Britain lives in New Mexico where she writes full time and pursues interests including reading, guitar playing, and illustration.

She enjoys exploring the magical places around her and can often be found paddling a canoe in stillwater, ambling through the woods to mountain summits, or sitting along the rocky shore listening, watching, and daydreaming.

With a DNA profile that lights up like a satellite photograph of earth, Saara El-Arifi's heritage is intrinsically linked to the themes she explores in her writing. She was raised in the Middle East until her formative years, when her family swapped the Abu Dhabi desert for the English Peak District hills.

This change of climate had a significant impact on her growth-not physically, she's nearly 6ft-and she learned what it was to be Black in a white world. El-Arifi knew she was a storyteller from the moment she told her first lie. Though her stories have developed beyond the ramblings of a child, she still appreciates the thrill of a well-told tale. The Final Strife is Saara El-Arifi's debut novel, the first part of a trilogy inspired by Ghanaian folklore and Arabian myths.

Kevin Hearne hugs trees, pets doggies, and rocks out to heavy metal.

He also thinks tacos are a pretty nifty idea. He is the author of the Seven Kenning series, which starts with A Plague of Giants, and the New York Times bestselling series Iron Druid Chronicles.

Brian Herbert, son of Frank Herbert, wrote the definitive biography of his father, Dreamer of Dune, which was a Hugo Award finalist. Brian is president of the company managing the legacy of Frank Herbert and is an executive producer of the motion picture Dune, as well as of the TV series Dune: The Sisterhood. He is the author or coauthor of more than forty-five books, including multiple New York Times bestsellers, has been nominated for the Nebula Award, and is always working on several projects at once. He and his wife, Jan, have traveled to all seven continents, and in 2019, they took a trip to Budapest to observe the filming of Dune.

Kevin J. Anderson is the author of nearly 100 novels, 48 of which have appeared on national or international bestseller lists; he has over 20 million books in print in thirty languages. He has won or been nominated for the Nebula Award, Bram Stoker Award, the SFX Reader's Choice Award, and New York Times Notable Book. By any measure, he is one of the most popular writers currently working in the genre.

Anderson has coauthored eleven books in the Dune saga with Brian Herbert, including the most recent, The Winds of Dune. Herbert and Anderson are co-producers on a major new film of Dune from Paramount. Anderson's popular epic SF series, The Saga of Seven Suns, is his most ambitious work; all seven volumes were just released in paperback and topped international bestseller lists. He is currently at work on a sweeping fantasy trilogy, Terra Incognita, about sailing ships, sea monsters, and the crusades. The first novel, The Edge of the World, was released in June 2009.

As an innovative companion project to Terra Incognita, Anderson cowrote (with wife Rebecca Moesta) the lyrics for an ambitious rock CD based on The Edge of the World. Performed by the new supergroup Roswell Six for ProgRock Records, the CD is a groundbreaking project featuring performances by rock legends from Dream Theater, Asia, Saga, Kansas, Rocket Scientists, Shadow Gallery, and others.

His novel Enemies & Allies chronicles the first meeting of Batman and Superman in the 1950s during the Cold War; also for HarperCollins/DC, Anderson wrote The Last Days of Krypton, chronicling the end of Superman's planet.

He has written numerous Star Wars projects, including the Jedi Academy trilogy, Darksaber, the Young Jedi Knights series (with Moesta), and Tales of the Jedi comics from Dark Horse. Fans might also know him from his X-Files novels or Dean Koontz's Frankenstein: Prodigal Son. He has published comics with DC, Marvel, IDW, Wildstorm, Topps, and Dark Horse.

Mark Lawrence was born in Champagne-Urbanan, Illinois, to British parents but moved to the UK at the age of one. He went back to the US after taking a PhD in mathematics at Imperial College to work on a variety of research projects including the ‘Star Wars’ missile defence programme.

Returning to the UK, he has worked mainly on image processing and decision/reasoning theory. He says he never had any ambition to be a writer so was very surprised when a half-hearted attempt to find an agent turned into a global publishing deal overnight.

His first trilogy, The Broken Empire, has been universally acclaimed as a ground-breaking work of fantasy, and both Emperor of Thorns and The Liar’s Key have won the Gemmell Legend award for best fantasy novel. Mark is married, with four children, and lives in Bristol.

Tamora Pierce is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of over eighteen novels set in the fantasy realm of Tortall.

She is the winner of the Romantic Times Book Reviews Career Achievement Award, the Skylark Edward E. Smith Memorial Award for Imaginative Fiction, and the Margaret A. Edwards Award for her 'significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature'.

Pierce lives in Syracuse, New York, with her husband, Tim, and their cats, birds, and occasional rescued wildlife.

Adrian Tchaikovsky is the author of the acclaimed Shadows of the Apt fantasy series and the epic science fiction blockbuster Children of Time.

He has won the Arthur C. Clarke Award, a British Fantasy Society Award, and been nominated for the David Gemmell Legend Award.

In civilian life he is a lawyer, gamer and amateur entomologist.

Django Wexler graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with degrees in creative writing and computer science, worked in artificial intelligence research and as a programmer/writer for Microsoft, and is now a full-time fantasy writer. Django is the author of The Shadow Campaigns, a flitlock fantasy series for adults, and The Forbidden Library, a classic fantasy series for middle-grade readers.

Anna Smith Spark lives in London, UK. She has a BA in Classics, an MA in History and a PhD in English Literature. Besides her fantasy novels, she has been published in the Fortean Times, Hansard and the poetry website www.greatworks.org. Previous jobs include fetish model, English teacher and petty bureaucrat. Anna can often be spotted at SFF conventions wearing very unusual shoes.

Anna Stephens has worked in a variety of roles over the years, the latest being in corporate communications for an international law firm. She's currently living the dream as a full-time writer and hopes never to have to get a proper job again.

Anna loves all things speculative and horrifying, from books to film to TV, and is a second Dan black belt in Shotokan Karate, as well as a keen weightlifter and beginner swordfighter.