Albert James Young was an American poet, novelist, essayist, screenwriter, and professor. He was named Poet Laureate of California by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger from 2005 to 2008. Young’s many books included novels, collections of poetry, essays, and memoirs.

Greg Gatenby was born in 1950. He is the author of several collections of poetry and published two anthologies on dolphins and whales in art and literature, and the »Literary Guide to Toronto«. Thanks to his work as the founding Artistic Director of the Harbourfront Reading Series festival and IFOA (International Festival of Authors), Toronto has become a capital of literature. Since the 1970s, Gatenby has defended persecuted writers and fought for their right to publish. He has also hosted literary programmes on radio and TV.

Margo Glantz Shapiro is a Mexican writer, essayist, critic and academic. She has been a member of the Academia Mexicana de la Lengua since 1995. She is a recipient of the FIL Award.

Märta Tikkanen (b. 1935) is a Finland-Swedish journalist, writer, and teacher. In her broad output, translated into over 20 languages, she has critically dealt with gender roles and the shackles that bind women, as well as women’s liberation and the longing to realize oneself. She became a central figure in the Nordic women’s movement with her novel Manrape  (1975).

Paul Muldoon is an Irish poet. He has published more than thirty collections and won a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and the T. S. Eliot Prize. At Princeton University he has been both the Howard G. B. Clark ’21 University Professor in the Humanities and Founding Chair of the Lewis Center for the Arts.