Stephen May is a teacher of Creative Writing, former Director of the Arvon Centre at Lumb Bank, one-time scriptwriter for Emmerdale and respected author. His second novel, Life! Death! Prizes! was shortlisted for the 2012 Costa Novel Award.

Jodie Daber has a Masters in Creative Writing, is the author of several published short stories and has just completed her first novel.

Nigel Watts was born in Winchester in 1957. He spent two years in Japan where he wrote a large part of The Life Games, his first novel. This was awarded the Betty Trask Award in 1989 and was followed by Billy Bayswater in 1990, which was shortlisted for the Mail on Sunday-John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. Nigel Watts has a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Warwick. He is married and divides his time between Dorset and Richmond.

Kevin McCann is a published poet and freelance writer and was previously lecturer in Creative Writing at Liverpool University.

Katherine Lapworth runs her own copywriting consultancy, in addition to being a media expert and the author of several high-profile television tie-ins.

Tom Green is the editor of Writers' Guild Magazine and website, he wrote and produced their supplement of self-publishing, and he is also a published scriptwriter.