Rebecca O'Connor's first collection of poetry We'll Sing Blackbird was shortlisted for the Strong Shine Award.

Her writing has been published in the Guardian, the Spectator and Poetry Review, among other places, and is a recipient of a Geoffrey Dearmer Prize.

She has completed a seven-month residency at the Wordsworth Trust and is co-founder and publisher of The Moth Magazine . She lives in County Cavan, Ireland.

Sarah Hadley was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts. She interned at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, Italy and later worked at the Venice Biennale, the National Gallery of Art and the Library of Congress. She moved to Chicago in 1996 where she eventually founded the Filter Photo Festival. Since 2009, Hadley has lived and worked in Los Angeles and she has exhibited her work internationally.

Hadley has also had solo exhibitions at the Griffin Museum of Photography (Boston), the Loyola Museum of Art (Chicago), Afterimage Gallery (Dallas) and Fabrik Projects Gallery (Los Angeles) and her work has been shown in museums and galleries around the US. Her work has also been featured in international publications. Hadley has received grants from the California Center for Cultural Innovation, the Illinois Arts Council, and several fellowships from the Ragdale Foundation.