Tash Aw was born in Taipei to Malaysian Chinese parents. He was educated at a Catholic school in Kuala Lumpur before moving to England at the age of 18 to study law at the universities of Cambridge and Warwick. He later studied creative writing at the University of East Anglia, during which he completed his first novel, The Harmony Silk Factory, a story of a haunting episode in the life of a Malaysian Chinese family, set against the backdrop of the Japanese invasion of Malaya just before World War II.

Leanne O'Sullivan was born in Cork, Ireland, in 1983 and is currently completing her Bachelor's degree in English at University College Cork. Her first collection Waiting for my Clothes was published by the British house Bloodaxe when she was just 21 years of age. By that time she had already won many of Ireland's prestigious poetry prizes including first prize in the Seacat poetry competition, the RTE Rattlebag Poetry Slam and the Davoren Hanna Award for Young Emerging Irish Poet

Conal Creedon, who was born in Cork, Ireland, is a short story writer, novelist, playwright and documentary maker. His short stories have been published in various periodicals, broadcast on radio and adapted for radio. Creedon's – A Man Of Few Words [Irish Film Board/RTE/Indie Films 2002] – was adapted for film and a collection of his short fiction was published by Collins Press in 1998 [Pancho And Lefty Ride Out]. Creedon's short fiction has achieved recognition in the One-Voice Monologue Awards, the Francis MacManus Awards and George A. Birmingham Awards and has been published in China, Germany and Australia.

Alexis Stamatis is a well known Greek novelist, and poet. He was born in Athens, Greece in 1960 and studied Architecture at the National Technical University of Athens and took postgraduate degrees in Architecture and Cinematography in London. He has published six novels. His second novel, Βar Flaubert (Kedros 2000), a critically acclaimed best seller in Greece, has been published in France, Italy, Spain, Russia, Bangladesh and Serbia. Bar Flaubert has been adapted to a screenplay by the author and the director Vassilis Douvlis. Alexis Stamatis has also published six books of poetry.

Ragnar Hovland, born April 15 1952 in Bergen, Norway. Writer, translator, playwright. Grew up on the west coast of Norway, now lives in Oslo. Studied at Bergen University and in Paris. Cand. Philol (M.A.) with a major in French. Wrote his thesis on the French Writer Boris Vian. He made his literary debut in 1979 and has written 40 books in a variety of genre, novels, short stories, poetry, drama, cabarets and non-fiction for adults, young people and children. Seven plays have been performed on stage and on radio. Several of his books have been translated into other languages, German, French, Italian