Åsne Seierstad is a Norwegian freelance journalist and writer, best known for her accounts of everyday life in war zones – most notably Kabul after 2001, Baghdad in 2002 and the ruined Grozny in 2006. She has received numerous awards for her journalism and has reported from such war-torn regions as Chechnya, the Balkans, Afghanistan, and Iraq. She is fluent in five languages and lives in Norway.

Åsa Natacha Linderborg (née Andersson, born 20 May 1968) is a Swedish writer and historian. She writes regularly for Aftonbladet, where she works as chief cultural editor. Åsa Linderborg was born in the city of Västerås, where she also grew up. Her father worked as a metalworker and her mother, Tanja Linderborg, is a former politician and Member of Parliament for the Left Party – Communists. Åsa Linderborg herself became a member of the Left Party – Communists in 1980 and the following year of its youth wing, the Communist Youth. In 1987 she became an ombudsman for the Communist Youth in Mälardalen. Linderborg graduated with a Ph.D. in history from Uppsala University in 2001 with the dissertation Socialdemokraterna skriver historia ("Social Democrats Write History: History Writing Used as an Ideological Power Resource"), about the Swedish Social Democratic Party. In 2007 Mig äger ingen , was released. The book received good reviews and was nominated for the August Prize in the category best Swedish-language novel of the year. On 27 March 2008, Linderborg was presented as the new deputy cultural editor of Aftonbladet, with Karin Magnusson becoming the chief cultural editor. In 2009 Linderborg replaced Magnusson as chief cultural editor.

Tove Nilsen is a Norwegian novelist, children's writer and literary critic. She made her literary debut in 1974 with the novel 'Aldri la dem kle deg forsvarsløst naken.' Her adolescence novel from a dormitory town, 'Skyskraperengler' (1982) was a bestseller. She was awarded the Riksmål Society Literature Prize in 1993. Her novel 'Øyets sult' (1993) was nominated for the Nordic Council's Literature Prize.