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Josh Malerman’s literary output began as a young child as he wrote about a space-travelling dog. During his many years spent as lead singer and guitarist for band The High Strung, Josh never stopped writing, until one day, the drafts began to form chilling debut Bird Box, published in 2015. Josh lives in Michigan and tweets at @JoshMalerman.

A.K. Mulford is the bestselling fantasy author of The Five Crowns of Okrith series and former wildlife biologist who swapped rehabilitating monkeys for writing novels. She/They are inspired to create diverse stories that transport readers to new realms, making them fall in love with fantasy for the first time or all over again. She now lives in New Zealand with her husband and two young human primates, creating lovable fantasy characters and making ridiculous Tiktoks.

Juliet Marillier was born in New Zealand and brought up in Dunedin, the ‘Edinburgh of the South’. She has a passionate interest in Celtic music and Irish folklore. A mother of two daughters and two sons, she lives in a rural area outside Perth in Western Australia.

Originally from Brighton, Fiona McIntosh moved to Australia in her teens and forged a successful career in travel – running a business with her husband – before becoming a writer. She continues her work and on top of this not only writes at least two books a year, but also spearheads the Fab Fantasy Bookclub – Australia’s premier fantasy bookclub. She lives in southern Australia with her husband, her two lovely sons, two mad dogs and two insane birds.

Julian May published her first story — the sf classic ‘Dune Roller’ — in the 1950s, and then wrote non-fiction and children’s books for many years before the phenomenally successful ‘Saga of the Exiles’. Prolific, thoughtful and ever imaginative, her novels have been published for years to wide acclaim around the world. She lives in Seattle.

Stuart MacBride is the Sunday Times No. 1 bestselling author of the Logan McRae and Ash Henderson novels. His work has won several prizes and in 2015 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Dundee University.

Stuart lives in the north-east of Scotland with his wife Fiona, cats Grendel, Onion and Beetroot, and other assorted animals.

Stephen Moore has been a published author since the mid 1990’s, having already written several acclaimed, and well received fantasy books for older children and young adults. His first fantasy novel for grown-ups, Graynelore, published in 2015.