Rosie Goldsmith is an award-winning journalist specialising in arts and foreign affairs. In twenty years at the BBC, she travelled the world, presented several flagship programmes such as Crossing Continents, Open Book and Front Row, and interviewed leading cultural and literary figures, from Margaret Atwood to Edmund de Waal. Cornwall-born Rosie is a passionate linguist and has lived in Europe, Africa and the USA. Today she combines journalism with chairing and curating arts and literary events and festivals in the UK and across the world. She is known as a champion of international literature, translation and language learning; she is Founder and Director of the European Literature Network, editor-in-chief of The Riveter magazine and was Chair of the Judges of the EBRD Literature Prize from 2018-20. Rosie works with major cultural projects, universities and institutions, such as Future Library Norway and the Victoria and Albert Museum London.

Dr Stephanie Jones holds a BA and an LLB from the Australian National University, and a PhD from Cambridge. She is an Associate Professor and Director of Postgraduate Research in English at the University of Southampton. She works on literature about marine and maritime worlds, with a particular focus on the Indian Ocean. Stephanie’s research and teaching spans postcolonial and decolonial studies, the interdisciplinary field of law and literature, and the environmental humanities. She has published work on East African law and literature; the poetics and metaphors of international maritime law and lore; fictional and historical piracy and privateering; and literary and legal ‘belonging’.

Tim Kendall is Professor of English at the University of Exeter. His three current and overlapping research interests are: twentieth-century poetry, archives, and William Golding. Recent publications and broadcasts include Poetry of the First World War: An Anthology (OUP, 2013) and a one-hour arts documentary, Ivor Gurney: The Poet who Loved the War (BBC 4, 2014; https://vimeo.com/86701188). He was the producer of a BBC 2 documentary on Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, broadcast in August 2018. With Mary Jo Salter and Margaret Ferguson, he co-edited the sixth edition of the Norton Anthology of Poetry (2018). Tim is currently editing Poetry of the Second World War (OUP, 2020), and the correspondence between William Golding and his Faber editor, Charles Monteith. With Philip Lancaster, he is editing Ivor Gurney's complete literary works in five volumes for OUP.

Dr Phil Wickham is the Curator of The Bill Douglas Cinema Museum at the University of Exeter, the foremost museum in the UK on the history of the moving image. He writes and lectures extensively on British film and television and was previously a TV Curator at the BFI. His publications include Understanding Television Text (BFI, 2007) and The Likely Lads (BFI, 2008).

Louisa Adjoa Parker is a writer of English-Ghanaian heritage who lives in south-west England. Her poetry books include Salt-sweat and Tears (Cinnamon Press) and How to wear a skin (Indigo Dreams). Louisa’s writing has appeared in a wide range of journals and anthologies including Envoi, Wasafiri, Acumen, Out of Bounds (Bloodaxe) and Closure: Contemporary Black British Short Stories (Peepal Tree). She has been highly commended by the Forward Prize; twice shortlisted by the Bridport Prize; and her grief poem, ‘Kindness’, was commended by the National Poetry Competition 2019. Louisa has written books and exhibitions exploring Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) history, and set up the Where are you really from? project telling stories of black and brown rural life. Her first short story collection will be published later this year (Colenso Books); and she has a forthcoming coastal memoir (Little Toller Books). www.whereareyoureallyfrom.co.uk/

Malaika Kegode is a writer, performer and producer based in Bristol. She has worked with a number of organisations including Roundhouse, Historic England, Elstree Studios and the BBC. In 2020, Malaika’s debut theatre show Outlier was commissioned by Bristol Old Vic after two sold-out scratch performances as part of their Ferment season. Malaika’s work has been displayed at the Arnolfini and in 2018 she was included in the BME Power List, celebrating Bristol’s 100 most influential black & minority ethnic people. Outside of her poetry work, Malaika studies film and has worked as a programme selector for Encounters and Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival. Her two poetry collections, Requite (2017) and Thalassic (2020), were published by Burning Eye Books.

Monique Roffey is an award-winning Trinidadian-born British writer of novels, essays, a memoir and literary journalism. Her novels have been translated into five languages and shortlisted for several major awards, (the Orange, Encore, Orion and COSTA Fiction Award) and, in 2013, Archipelago won the OCM BOCAS Award for Caribbean Literature. With the Kisses of His Mouth and The Tryst are works which examine female sexuality and desire. Her essays have appeared in The New York Review of Books, Boundless magazine, The Independent, Wasafiri and Caribbean Quarterly. She is a Lecturer in Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University and was a founding member of WRITERS REBEL, an active writer-led working group within Extinction Rebellion.

Helen Chaloner is Chief Executive of Literature Works, the regional literature development agency for south west England. She worked as a publishing PR in London before moving to Devon and becoming National Director of Arvon, which is known for its residential creative writing courses. From there she went to Farms for City Children, a charity connecting inner city school children to the countryside through a week on a working farm. Helen is principal short story reader for the Bridport Prize. She lives in West Devon on the northern edge of Dartmoor. Twitter: @LitWorksCEO