David Brin is a scientist, speaker, and world-known author. His novels have been New York Times Bestsellers, winning multiple Hugo, Nebula and other awards. At least a dozen have been translated into more than twenty languages. Existence, his latest novel, offers an unusual scenario for first contact. His ecological thriller, Earth, foreshadowed global warming, cyberwarfare and near-future trends such as the World Wide Web. A movie, directed by Kevin Costner, was loosely based on his post-apocalyptic novel, The Postman. Startide Rising won the Hugo and Nebula Awards for best novel. The Uplift War also won the Hugo Award. His non-fiction book—The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us to Choose Between Freedom and Privacy? — deals with secrecy in the modern world. It won the Freedom of Speech Prize from the American Library Association. Brin serves on advisory committees dealing with subjects as diverse as national defense and homeland security, astronomy and space exploration, SETI, nanotechnology, and philanthropy. David appears frequently on TV, including "The Universe" and on the History Channel's "Life After People." Full and updated at: http://www.davidbrin.com/biography.htm

Julie Novakova is a Czech author and translator of science fiction, fantasy and detective stories. She has published short fiction in Clarkesworld, Asimov’s, Analog and other magazines and anthologies. Her work in Czech includes seven novels, one anthology (“Terra Nullius”) and over thirty short stories and novelettes. Some of her works have been also translated into Chinese, Romanian and Estonian. She received the Encouragement Award of the European science fiction and fantasy society in 2013, the Aeronautilus award for the best Czech short story of 2014 and 2015, and for the best novel of 2015. Julie is an evolutionary biologist by study and also takes a keen interest in planetary science. She's currently working on her first SF novel in English, several new short stories and managing a new translation project. *** Julie Nováková (*1991 v Praze) je autorkou science fiction, fantasy a detektivních příběhů. Publikovala samostatné romány Zločin na Poseidon City (2009), Tichá planeta (2011) a Nikdy nevěř ničemu (2011), novelu Bez naděje (2014), SF trilogii Blíženci (Prstenec prozření, Elysium, Hvězdoměnci; 2015) a více než třicet povídek. Dosud pět povídek jí vyšlo v časopisech a antologiích v anglickém jazyce, další se chystají k publikaci. Jako editorka se poprvé objevila v antologii Terra nullius (2015). V roce 2013 obdržela cenu evropského fandomu Encouragement Award. Kromě psaní beletrie se věnuje též studiu biologie na PřF UK, publicistice, popularizaci vědy a výuce tvůrčího psaní na workshopech společně s autorem Janem Kotoučem.