Melvin Burgess was born in London and brought up in Surrey and Sussex. He has had a variety of jobs before becoming a full-time writer. Before his first novel, he had short stories published and a play broadcast on Radio 4.

He is now regarded as one of the best writers in contemporary children's literature, having won the Carnegie Medal and the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize for his acclaimed novel Junk.

Anne Fine read Politics and History at Warwick and then became a teacher. Her first novel was published in 1975 and today she is one of the UK's most successful children's writers.

She has won many awards including two Carnegie Medals, the Guardian Fiction Prize and the Whitbread Prize. Goggle-Eyes was serialised on TV and Madame Doubtfire was made into a hit Hollywood movie.

Anne lives in County Durham.

A.S. King is the award-winning author of eight acclaimed YA novels. Her novel Please Ignore Vera Dietz earned a 2011 Michael L. Printz Honor and Ask The Passengers won the 2013 Los Angeles Times Book Prize. John Green called her 'one of the best YA writers working today.' King lives with her family in Pennsylvania, where she returned after living on a farm and teaching adult literacy in Ireland for more than a decade.

Sophie McKenzie was born and brought up in London, where she still lives with her teenage son. She has worked as a journalist and a magazine editor, and now writes full time. She has tallied up numerous award wins and has twice been longlisted for the Carnegie Medal.

Bali Rai's first novel for young adults, (Un)Arranged Marriage, created a huge amount of interest and won many awards, including the Angus Book Award and the Leicester Book of the Year.

It was also shortlisted for the prestigious Branford Boase first novel award. Rani and Sukh and The Whisper were both shortlisted for the Booktrust Teenage Prize.

Bali is also the author of the hugely popular Soccer Squad series for younger readers. Bali was born in Leicester where he still lives, writing full-time and visiting schools to talk about his books.

Andrew Smith is the award-winning author of several Young Adult novels, including the critically acclaimed Grasshopper Jungle. He is a native-born Californian who spent most of his formative years traveling the world. His university studies focused on Political Science, Journalism, and Literature. He has published numerous short stories and articles. The Alex Crow, a starred novel is his ninth novel. He lives in Southern California.

Jenny Valentine moved house every two years when she was growing up. She has also worked as a teaching assistant and a jewellery maker.

She studied English Literature at Goldsmiths College, which almost put her off reading but not quite. Jenny is married to a singer/songwriter and has two children. In 2007, Jenny won the Guardian Prize for Children's Fiction with her debut novel Finding Violet Park.