Gene Wolfe (1931-2019) was a winner of the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement, as well as the Nebula Award (2), the World Fantasy Award (3-most recently for Soldier of Sidon), the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, the British Fantasy Award, and the Prix Apollo. In 2007, he was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame. In 2013, he received the SFWA Grand Master Award.

Charles Stross is a full-time science fiction writer and resident of Edinburgh, Scotland. The author of seven Hugo-nominated novels and winner of three Hugo awards for best novella, two of which are part of the Laundry Files series, Stross's works have been translated into over twelve languages.

As the owner of degrees in pharmacy and computer science, he graduated as the world's only academically qualified cyberpunk writer just as cyberpunk died. Today he describes his job as telling lies for money and tormenting his imaginary friends.

Michael Swanwick has received the Nebula, Theodore Sturgeon, World Fantasy and Hugo Awards, and has the pleasant distinction of having been nominated for and lost more of these same awards than any other writer. He has written ten novels, over a hundred and fifty short stories, and countless works of flash fiction.

Elizabeth Bear was the recipient of the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 2005. She has won two Hugo Awards for her short fiction, A Sturgeon Award, and the Locus Award for Best First Novel. Bear lives in Brookfield, Massachusetts.

Paul Cornell has written some of Doctor Who's best-loved episodes for the BBC, as well as the novel Doctor Who- Nemesis of the Daleks with Dan Abnett.

He has also written on a number of comic book series for Marvel and DC, including X-men and Batman and Robin.

He has been Hugo Award-nominated for his work in TV, comics and prose, and won the BSFA award for his short fiction.

Lee Mandelo is a writer, critic, and occasional editor whose fields of interest include speculative and queer fiction, especially when the two coincide. They have been a past nominee for various awards, including the Nebula, Lambda, and Hugo; their work can be found in magazines such as Tor.com, Uncanny Magazine, Clarkesworld, and Nightmare. Aside from a brief stint overseas learning to speak Scouse, Mandelo has spent their life ranging across Kentucky, currently living in Lexington and pursuing a PhD at the University of Kentucky.

Patrick Murphy is a celebrated BBC journalist and the longest-serving regular contributor to Sports Report. He started in November, 1981, specialising in cricket and football, and is famed for his many jousts with difficult members of the football industry.

Murphy has been involved in 44 sports books, including acclaimed biographies of Ian Botham and Brian Clough while co-writing books with, among others, Bob Willis, Graham Gooch, Viv Richards, Wasim Akram, Alan Donald, Imran Khan, Alec Stewart, Andrew Flintoff and Jack Russell. He has 37k followers on Twitter.