Gavin Francis was born in Scotland in 1975, and has travelled widely on all seven continents. He has crossed Eurasia by motorcycle, and spent a year in Antarctica. He works as a medical doctor as well as a writer. When travelling he is most interested in the way that places shapes the lives and stories of the people who live in them. His first book, True North: Travels in Arctic Europe, explores the history of Europe's expansion northwards from the first Greek explorers to the Polar expeditions of the late 19th and 20th centuries. It was nominated for a William Mills Prize for Polar Books. Of it Robert Macfarlane wrote: 'a seriously accomplished first book, by a versatile and interesting writer... it is set apart by the elegance and grace of its prose, and by its abiding interest in landscapes of the mind. Francis explores not only the terrain of the far North, but also the ways in which the North has been imagined... a dense and unusual book.' In 2011 he received a Creative Scotland Writer's Award towards the completion of a book about the year he spent living beside a colony of Emperor Penguins in Antarctica. Empire Antarctica will be published by Chatto & Windus in November 2012.

Born in 1974, Fabio Genovesi is the author of three novels and is a regular contributor to Vanity Fair and La Lettura, the literary supplement to the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. He also writes for film and has contributed articles to Rolling Stone. His second novel, Esche vive (Live Bait), was translated into ten languages.

Donatella was born and grew up in Arsita, a small village in the province of Teramo, and now lives in Penne where she practises as a paediatric dentist. From the age of nine she has been writing stories, fables, poems, and now novels. My Mother Is a River is her first novel. It was first published in Italy in 2011, where it won the Tropea and the John Fante literary prizes, and was translated into German in 2013. Her second book, Bella Mia, was published in 2014 and won the Brancati Prize. (from http://www.calisipress.com/authors/vi...)

Nata a Pisa nel 1963, da madre spagnola (di Barcellona) e padre toscano, è cresciuta a Livorno. In questa città studia al Liceo Classico Niccolini Guerrazzi; successivamente consegue la laurea all'Università di Pisa in Scienze Politiche. Frattanto inizia la professione nelle radio e TV locali toscane, entrando a Il Tirreno nel 1985, dove, per otto anni, lavora nelle redazioni di Piombino, Livorno, Lucca e Pistoia. Nel 1990 approda a la Repubblica, dove si è occupata di cronaca e politica interna. Nel luglio 2008 è al centro di una curiosa polemica. La rivista Prima Comunicazione rende note le anticipazioni di una sua intervista in cui ammette di aver accettato la proposta del neo editore de l'Unità, Renato Soru, di diventare direttrice del quotidiano fondato da Antonio Gramsci; nella stessa intervista Concita De Gregorio espone le linee guida della sua direzione. La notizia suscita clamore in redazione: il comitato di redazione protesta contro la via dell'«annuncio del cambio di direttore attraverso intervista». Il 22 agosto 2008 viene ufficializzata la nomina a direttrice de l'Unità, carica che ha ricoperto fino al 7 luglio 2011,quando ritorna a la Repubblica. È sposata con il giornalista Alessandro Cecioni, ed è madre di quattro figli maschi.