Alastair Reynolds was born in Barry, South Wales, in 1966. He studied at Newcastle and St Andrews Universities and has a Ph.D. in astronomy.

He stopped working as an astrophysicist for the European Space Agency to become a full-time writer.

Revelation Space and Pushing Ice were shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award; Revelation Space, Absolution Gap, Diamond Dogs and Century Rain were shortlisted for the British Science Fiction Award and Chasm City won the British Science Fiction Award.

John Murphy is a professor of politics at the University of Melbourne.

He is also Assistant Dean in the Faculty of Arts. He writes prolifically on Australian social and political history and is editor of the Australian politics and policy series in MUP s Academic Monograph series.

He is author of many books, including Harvest of Fear: A history of Australia's Vietnam War (Allen & Unwin, 1993); Imagining the fifties: Private sentiment and political culture in Menzies Australia (UNSW Press, 2000) and was a contributor to Half a Citizen: Life on welfare in Australia (Allen & Unwin, 2011).

Ken Liu was born in China and moved to America at the age of 11.

He read English at Harvard and studied law at Harvard Law School.

He has won the Sturgeon, the Hugo (three times), the Nebula, and the World Fantasy Awards

Cory Doctorow is a science fiction novelist, blogger and technology activist. He is the co-editor of the popular weblog Boing Boing, and contributor to The Guardian, the New York Times, Wired, and many others.

He has won the Locus and Sunburst Awards, and been nominated for the Hugo, Nebula and British Science Fiction Awards. New York Times bestseller Little Brother was published in 2008.