Nnedi Okorafor was born in the United States to Nigerian parents of Igbo descent. Her novels include Who Fears Death (winner of the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel), Akata Witch (an Amazon.com Best Book of the Year), Zahrah the Windseeker (winner of the Wole Soyinka Prize for African Literature), and The Shadow Speaker (winner of the CBS Parallax Award).

Her work spans several genres and age ranges, as evidenced by her short story collection Kabu Kabu and science fiction novel Lagoon (finalist for Best Novel in the British Science Fiction Association Awards and the Red Tentacle Awards).

Her latest release, Binti, won both the Hugo Award for Best Novella and the Nebula Award for Best Novella. Nnedi is an associate professor at the University at Buffalo, New York. She splits her time between Buffalo and Chicago with her daughter Anyaugo and family.

Lavie Tidhar's work encompasses literary fiction (Maror, Adama and the forthcoming Six Lives), cross-genre classics such as Jerwood Prize winner A Man Lies Dreaming (2014) and World Fantasy Award winner Osama (2011) and genre works like the Campbell and Neukom prize winner Central Station (2016).

He has also written comics (Adler, 2020) and children's books such as Candy (2018) and the forthcoming A Child's Book of the Future (2024). He is a former columnist for the Washington Post and a current honorary Visiting Professor and Writer in Residence at the American International University in London.