Sharna Jackson is an author and Artistic Director who specialises in developing and delivering socially-engaged digital initiatives for children and young people across culture, publishing and entertainment. She is driven specifically to encourage and increase diverse and disengaged audiences’ participation in the arts locally, nationally, and globally. Sharna has written three books, Tate Kids British Art Activity Book, Tate Kids Modern Art Activity Book and High Rise Mystery - the first in a middle-grade series featuring the sibling detective duo everyone’s dying to meet. She is the Artistic Director at Site Gallery, Sheffield’s leading international contemporary art space, specialising in moving image, new media and performance. She is on the board of Sheffield Doc/Fest and New Writing North in addition to being a member of BAFTA’s Children’s and Learning and New Talent committees and the Children’s Media Conference advisory board. Sharna was born and raised in Luton and currently lives in Sheffield – and Rotterdam on a ship built in 1897.

Abiola Bello is a Nigerian-British, prize-winning children’s/YA author who was born and raised in London. She wrote her first novel at the age of eight and experienced her first taste of ‘being published’ after winning a school poetry competition at the age of 12. Abiola is an advocate for diversity in books for young people. She’s the author of the award-winning fantasy series EMILY KNIGHT (EMILY KNIGHT I AM, EMILY KNIGHT I AM…AWAKENED and EMILY KNIGHT I AM BECOMING). EMILY KNIGHT I AM…AWAKENED was nominated for the CILIP’s Carnegie Award, won London’s BIG Read 2019, and was a finalist for the People’s Book Prize Best Children’s Book. Abiola contributed to THE VERY MERRY MURDER CLUB, a collection of new mystery fiction from thirteen exciting and diverse children’s writers which published in October 2021 (Farshore/HarperCollins). It was Waterstones November Children's Book of the Month, Amazon Number 1 bestseller, The Bookseller One To Watch, The Guardian's Children's & Teens Best New Novels and shortlisted for The Diverse Book Awards 2022. Her debut YA, LOVE IN WINTER WONDERLAND, published Winter 2022 (Simon & Schuster UK). It was an Amazon Number 1 bestseller, The Bookseller One To Watch, Amazon Editor's Choice for Black History Month 2022, featured in The Guardian Children's & Teens Best New Novels and was on an Amazon Billboard for Black History Month in Leicester Square. LOVE IN WINTER WONDERLAND was sold to the US, Germany and Poland. Abiola's next YA book, ONLY FOR THE HOLIDAYS, is out October 2023. Abiola is a finalist for The Black British Business Awards - Arts and Media 2023. She won The London Book Fair Trailblazer Awards 2018 and is on the advisory board for World Book Day UK. She is the co-founder of Hashtag Press, Hashtag BLAK, The Diverse Book Awards and ink! Abiola has appeared in Cosmopolitan, Female First Magazine, The Mirror, BBC1XTRA to name a few. As well as being a writer, Abiola is a professional dancer. She has performed for more than a decade in prestigious venues including The Royal Opera House, The Barbican, Sadler’s Wells, Hammersmith Apollo, Unicorn Theatre. Abiola has also appeared on BBC’s The Apprentice, “Got To Dance” and Street Dance AllStars The Movie.

Dominique Valente is fairly certain she has a Benjamin Button type of disease where you grow younger the older you get, as apart from an odd blip in her twenties where she was a journalist for ten years, she came to her senses and decided to make up stories about witches and grumpy monsters instead. She has one arm and grew up in South Africa, she wrote Starfell as a metaphor for being disabled and for anyone who has ever felt different. For news, book signings, festivals and other events find out more at www.dominiquevalente.com

Roopa was brought up in London and graduated from New College in Oxford in 1995. She worked in advertising and it 2004 quit to write full time. She now lives in south east London and south west France with her husband and two sons. Bitter Sweets is her first novel and in 2007 it was nominated for the Orange Award for New Writer. Her second novel, Corner Shop was released in October 2008 and her third novel is due in 2009.