Joseph Coelho's debut poetry collection Werewolf Club Rules won the CLPE CLiPPA Poetry Award 2015. His poetry collection Overheard in a Tower Block, published by Otter-Barry Books in 2017 was shortlisted for the CLiPPA Poetry Award and longlisted for the CILIP Carnegie Medal. His verse novel The Girl Who Became a Tree (Otter-Barry Books) was shortlisted for the CILIP Carnegie Medal in 2021. As well as poetry, Joseph also writes plays and picture books. Joseph was the Waterstones Children's Laureate 2022-24. The Boy Lost in the Maze won the Yoto Carnegie 2024 Medal for Writing. He was awarded an OBE in 2024 and was nominated for the prestigious Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award 2025. He lives in Edinburgh.

Shirley Hottier was winner of the FAB illustration award in 2021. She is French and graduated in Paris with a degree in architecture. As an illustrator she has a passion for promoting diversity, drawing on her own family tradition of multiple cultures to create warm and lively scenes and characters. Shirley specialises in digital art, incorporating a rich palette of vivid colours and varied textures. She is illustrator of The Poetry World of John Agard (2025). Shirley lives in Edinburgh.