Caroline Bird is a poet and playwright. Her sixth collection, The Air Year, won the Forward Prize for Best Collection 2020 and was shortlisted for the Polari Prize and the Costa Prize. Her fifth collection, In These Days of Prohibition, was shortlisted for the 2017 TS Eliot Prize and the Ted Hughes Award. As a playwright, Bird has been shortlisted for the George Devine Award and the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Her Selected Poems, Rookie, was published in May 2022.

Moira Buffini is a screenwriter and playwright. Her plays include: Welcome to Thebes and wonder.land for the National Theatre; Dying for It and Marianne Dreams for the Almeida; Loveplay for the RSC; and the Olivier Award nominated Dinner and Olivier Award-winning Handbagged, both enjoyed successful transfers to the West End. Her screenplays include Tamara Drewe, Byzantium, Jane Eyre and The Dig and she is co-creator and writer of Harlots for ITV and Hulu.

Travis Elborough is an author and cultural commentator. His many books include The Bus We Loved, a history of the Routemaster bus; The Long-Player Goodbye, a hymn to vinyl records; Wish You Were Here, a survey of the British beside the seaside, A Walk in the Park: The Life and Times of a People’s Institution and Through the Looking Glasses: The Spectacular Life of Spectacles. Atlas of Vanishing Places won Illustrated Book of the Year at the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards in 2020.

Zoe Gilbert's novels are Folk, which was shortlisted for the International Dylan Thomas Prize and adapted for BBC Radio, and Mischief Acts. Her short stories have been published in anthologies by Comma Press, appeared in publications including The Stinging Fly, Mechanics' Institute Review, and the British Fantasy Society Journal and won awards, including the Costa Short Story Award. She is co-founder of London Lit Lab with Lily Dunn, and the co-editor of A Wild and Precious Life, an anthology of writers in recovery.

Ayisha Malik is the author of the critically acclaimed novels, Sofia Khan is Not Obliged, The Other Half of Happiness, This Green and Pleasant Land and The Movement. She was a WHSmith Fresh Talent Pick, winner of The Diversity Book Awards and was shortlisted for the Asian Women of Achievement Award and Marie Claire’s Future Shapers Awards. She has written a re-telling of Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park – part of Hachette’s Awesomely Austen children’s series – and the children’s book, Seven Sisters.

Emma Paterson is a Director of Aitken Alexander Associates and a member of the Booker Prize Foundation Advisory Committee. She was included in British Vogue’s 2021 list of the 25 most influential women and named one of Britain’s most influential people of African, African Caribbean and African American heritage by Powerlist. She represents literary fiction, non-fiction and poetry and her authors include Bernardine Evaristo, Mary Jean Chan, Rachel Long, Natasha Brown, Susanna Moore, Olivia Sudjic, Emma Dabiri, Shon Faye, Mona Chalabi and Sam Knight.

Chris Wellbelove is a Director of Aitken Alexander Associates and Head of the Book Department.He represents fiction, nonfiction and poetry and his authors include Daisy Johnson, Evie Wyld, The Secret Barrister, Kevin Jared Hosein, Vanessa Onwuemezi, Andrew McMillan, Kayo Chingonyi, Liz Berry, Jonathan Liew, Matthew Green, Grace Blakeley, Wayne McGregor and Ita O’Brien. His authors have won or been shortlisted for prizes including the Booker Prize, Dylan Thomas Prize, Waterstones Book of the Year, Forward Prizes, TS Eliot Prize and the Wainwright Prize.