Alexia Casale is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University, as well as a script consultant and specialist human rights editor.

Her young adult novel, The Bone Dragon, was shortlisted for the Waterstone's Children's Book Prize. The Best Way to Bury Your Husband is her first adult novel, inspired by spiralling domestic violence rates in the pandemic and her own human rights work.

Catherine Johnson is an award-winning writer of Welsh/African Caribbean descent, now living in Hastings in East Sussex.

Her novels for children include Stella; The Dying Game; Arctic Hero, selected for Booked Up 2009; The Curious Tale of the Lady Caraboo; and A Nest of Vipers, shortlisted for the UKLA Award 2009.

She lectures in creative writing at London Metropolitan University and is a Trustee of The Reading Agency.

She works regularly with children and teachers in primary schools and libraries across the UK. This is the sequel to Sawbones, winner of the Historical Association's Young Quills Award for Historical Fiction.

Imogen Russell Williams is a writer, editor and noted children's literature critic, whose work appears in the Guardian, the TLS, the Metro and Books For Keeps, among many others. She is also the author of The Big Book of the UK (Ladybird).

Larry Hayes helps run an investment fund, and is a trustee for a homeless charity. On Fridays he homeschools his two kids, letting them decide what to study. In the future he hopes to become a treasure hunter, invent a yoghurt that makes you happy, and solve the maths behind the human brain. 

Sam Sedgman is a novelist, playwright and award-winning digital producer. His work has been performed internationally and shortlisted for the Courtyard Theatre award.

Sophie Kirtley grew up in Northern Ireland, where she spent her childhood climbing on hay bales, rolling down sand-dunes and leaping the raw Atlantic waves. Nowadays she lives in Wiltshire with her husband, three children and their mini-menagerie of pets and wild things.

Sophie has always loved stories: she has taught English, and has worked in a theatre, a bookshop and a tiny pub where folk tell fairytales by candlelight. Sophie is also a prize-winning published poet. This is Sophie's debut novel.

Joseph Coelho is a performance poet, children's author and playwright. His debut poetry collection Werewolf Club Rules won the CLPE CliPPA Poetry Award 2015 and he was included on The Guardian's 2018 list 'Fresh Voices: 50 authors you should read now.'

He is the current Waterstones Children's Laureate.,