Raised on a steady diet of fantasy novels, comic books, and Dungeons & Dragons, Peter V. Brett has been writing fantasy stories for as long as he can remember.

He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature and Art History from the University at Buffalo in 1995, and then spent over a decade in pharmaceutical publishing before returning to his bliss. He lives in New York.

Naomi Novik is the acclaimed author of the Temeraire series and the multiple award-winning Uprooted. She has been nominated for the Hugo Award and has won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, as well as the Locus Award for Best New Writer and the Compton Crook Award for Best First Novel. She is also the author of the graphic novel Will Supervillains Be on the Final?

Fascinated with both history and legends, Novik is a first-generation American raised on Polish fairy tales and stories of Baba Yaga. Her own adventures include pillaging degrees in English literature and computer science from various ivory towers, designing computer games, and helping to build the Archive of Our Own for fanfiction and other fanworks. Novik is a co-founder of the Organization for Transformative Works.

She lives in New York City with husband and Hard Case Crime founder Charles Ardai and their daughter, Evidence, surrounded by an excessive number of purring computers.

Patrick Rothfuss had the good fortune to be born in Wisconsin in 1973, where the long winters and lack of cable television encouraged a love of reading and writing.

After abandoning his chosen field of chemical engineering, Pat became an itinerant student, wandering through clinical psychology, philosophy, medieval history, theater, and sociology.

Nine years later, Pat was forced by university policy to finally complete his undergraduate degree in English. When not reading and writing, he teaches fencing and dabbles with alchemy in his basement.

Patrick Rothfuss is an award-winning as well as Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author.

Robert Jordan (1948-2007), was a native of Charleston, South Carolina. He taught himself to read at age four with the incidental aid of his older brother, and was tackling Mark Twain and Jules Verne by five. He was a graduate of The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina, with a degree in physics.

He served two tours in Vietnam with the U.S. Army and received multiple decorations for his service. He began writing in 1977 and is best known for the internationally bestselling The Wheel of Time series.

Lev Grossman is the bestselling author of the critically acclaimed Magicians trilogy, which has also become a successful TV series.

Previously an award-winning journalist who interviewed the likes of Neil Gaiman and J.K. Rowling, this is his first foray into the world of children's literature. He lives in New York City with his wife and three children.

Mark Lawrence was born in Champagne-Urbanan, Illinois, to British parents but moved to the UK at the age of one. He went back to the US after taking a PhD in mathematics at Imperial College to work on a variety of research projects including the ‘Star Wars’ missile defence programme.

Returning to the UK, he has worked mainly on image processing and decision/reasoning theory. He says he never had any ambition to be a writer so was very surprised when a half-hearted attempt to find an agent turned into a global publishing deal overnight.

His first trilogy, The Broken Empire, has been universally acclaimed as a ground-breaking work of fantasy, and both Emperor of Thorns and The Liar’s Key have won the Gemmell Legend award for best fantasy novel. Mark is married, with four children, and lives in Bristol.

Kevin Hearne hugs trees, pets doggies, and rocks out to heavy metal.

He also thinks tacos are a pretty nifty idea. He is the author of the Seven Kenning series, which starts with A Plague of Giants, and the New York Times bestselling series Iron Druid Chronicles.

Terry Brooks is the New York Times bestselling author of more than thirty books, including the Dark Legacy of Shannara adventures Wards of Faerie and Bloodfire Quest

The Legends of Shannara novels Bearers of the Black Staff and The Measure of the Magic; the Genesis of Shannara trilogy Armageddon's Children, The Elves of Cintra and The Gypsy Morph; and The Sword of Shannara.

The author was a practising attorney for many years but now writes full time. He lives with his wife, Judine, in the Pacific Northwest.