Daniel Abraham is the author of the critically acclaimed Long Price quartet. He has been nominated for the Hugo, Nebula and World Fantasy awards, and won the International Horror Guild Award.

He also writes (with Ty Frank) as James S. A. Corey, author of the New York Times bestselling Expanse sequence - now a major TV series. He lives in New Mexico.

Raised on a steady diet of fantasy novels, comic books, and Dungeons & Dragons, Peter V. Brett has been writing fantasy stories for as long as he can remember.

He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature and Art History from the University at Buffalo in 1995, and then spent over a decade in pharmaceutical publishing before returning to his bliss. He lives in New York.

Terry Brooks is the New York Times bestselling author of more than thirty books, including the Dark Legacy of Shannara adventures Wards of Faerie and Bloodfire Quest

The Legends of Shannara novels Bearers of the Black Staff and The Measure of the Magic; the Genesis of Shannara trilogy Armageddon's Children, The Elves of Cintra and The Gypsy Morph; and The Sword of Shannara.

The author was a practising attorney for many years but now writes full time. He lives with his wife, Judine, in the Pacific Northwest.

Born in 1964, Jacqueline Carey was an avid reader since early childhood. She began writing in high school, not realizing her hobby would become a permanent vocation. After receiving B.A. degrees in psychology and English literature from Lake Forest College, she spent time living in London and working in a bookstore, then traveling throughout Europe. While living abroad, the desire to become a professional novelist emerged as a driving passion.

Upon returning she embarked in earnest on a writing career, which came to fruition some ten years later. During this time, she worked at the art centre of an area college, gaining a strong background in the visual arts. This, along with her early studies in literature and psychology informs her work, as does a lifelong interest in mythology. She enjoys doing research on a wide variety of arcane topics, and an affinity for travel has take her from Finland to Egypt to date. Although often asked by inquiring fans, she does not, in fact, have any tattoos.

Jacqueline currently resides in west Michigan, where she is a founding member of the oldest Mardi Gras krewe in the state. She is the author of the critically acclaimed Kushiel's Legacy fantasy trilogy, including Kushiel's Dart, which received the Locus Award for Best First Novel and the Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice Award for Best Fantasy in 2001. Other previous publications include a nonfiction book, various essays and short stories.

Lev Grossman is the bestselling author of the critically acclaimed Magicians trilogy, which has also become a successful TV series.

Previously an award-winning journalist who interviewed the likes of Neil Gaiman and J.K. Rowling, this is his first foray into the world of children's literature. He lives in New York City with his wife and three children.

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.

Robert Jordan (1948-2007), was a native of Charleston, South Carolina. He taught himself to read at age four with the incidental aid of his older brother, and was tackling Mark Twain and Jules Verne by five. He was a graduate of The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina, with a degree in physics.

He served two tours in Vietnam with the U.S. Army and received multiple decorations for his service. He began writing in 1977 and is best known for the internationally bestselling The Wheel of Time series.

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.

An avid reader of fantasy literature since age six, Naomi Novik is also a history buff with a particular fascination with the Napoleonic era and a fondness for the work of Patrick O'Brian and Jane Austen.

She lives with her husband and daughter in New York City along with many purring computers.

Patrick Rothfuss had the good fortune to be born in Wisconsin in 1973, where the long winters and lack of cable television encouraged a love of reading and writing.

After abandoning his chosen field of chemical engineering, Pat became an itinerant student, wandering through clinical psychology, philosophy, medieval history, theater, and sociology.

Nine years later, Pat was forced by university policy to finally complete his undergraduate degree in English. When not reading and writing, he teaches fencing and dabbles with alchemy in his basement.

Patrick Rothfuss is an award-winning as well as Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author.

A lifelong resident of Massachusetts, R.A. Salvatore, began writing shortly after receiving his Bachelor of Science degree in Communications/Media from Fitchburg State College. He penned his first manuscript in 1982, in a spiral notebook, writing by candlelight while listening to Fleetwood Mac's Tusk album.

He is the acclaimed author of the Demon Wars trilogy: The Demon Awakens, The Demon Spirit, and The Demon Apostle, as well as Mortalis, Bastion of Darkness, Ascendance, and the New York Times bestseller Star Wars: The New Jedi Order: Vector Prime.

Brandon Sanderson was born in Nebraska in 1975.

Since then he has written, amongst others The Mistborn books and begun the internationally bestselling Stormlight Archive.

He was also chosen by Robert Jordan's family to complete Jordan's Wheel of Time Sequence. He lives in Utah.

Carrie Vaughn is the New York Times Bestselling author of more than twenty novels and over eighty short stories. She's best known for the Kitty Norville urban fantasy series about a werewolf who hosts a talk radio advice show for supernatural beings.

She's also a contributor to the Wild Cards series of shared-world novels edited by George R.R. Martin. She has been nominated for various awards, including the Hugo and RT Reviewer Choice Awards.

Tad Williams is a California-based fantasy superstar. His genre-creating (and genre-busting) books have sold tens of millions worldwide, in twenty-five languages.

His considerable output of epic fantasy and science fiction book-series, stories of all kinds, urban fantasy novels, comics, scripts, etc., have strongly influenced a generation of writers: the Otherland epic now plays as an MMO on steam.

Tad is currently immersed in the creation of The Last King of Osten Ard, planned as a trilogy with two intermediary novels. He, his family and his animals live in the Santa Cruz mountains in a suitably strange and beautiful house.