Almelda Faria was born in Montemor-o-Novo, Portugal in 1943. A fiction writer playwright and essayist, he currently lectures in Aesthetics at the New University of Lisbon. The recipient of many prizes, he published his first novel Rumor Branco (White Noise) in 1962 at the age of 19. His other novels include A Paixão (The Passion, 1965), the first part of a trilogy set. His O Conquistador (The Conqueror, 1990) is an ironic and erotic parody which “weaves a devilish black comedy of subtle double entendres on philosophical, linguistic and ideological levels”. His books are translated into many languages, including Spanish, Franch, Italian, Dutch, German, Greek, Danish, Swedish, Hungarian and Bulgarian.

Carmen Callil was born in Melbourne in 1938 and graduated from the University of Melbourne with a BA Arts degree in History and Literature. A Doctor of Letters from Sheffield, York, Oxford Brookes and The Open University, Carmen has lived in London since 1960. She has pursued a wide-ranging career since founding the Virago Press in 1972. Now a critic and writer, Carmen Callil’s work includes: The Modern Library: The Best 200 Novels in English since 1950, written with Colm Toibin and published by Picador in April 1999; a biographical account of her family in New Writing 5, edited for the British Council by Christopher Hope and Peter Porter and Bad Faith: A Forgotten History of Family & Fatherland, a book about Vichy France and Louis Darquier, Commissioner for Jewish Affairs in Pétain’s government.

Belfast born poet Gerald Dawe has published six collections of poetry, including, most recently, The Morning Train and Lake Geneva. He is a fellow of Trinity College, Dublin where he is Lecturer in English and director of the graduate writing programme. He has edited several anthologies of Irish poetry and criticism as well as publishing volumes of his own literary essays. He lives in Dun Laoghaire.

Hanan al-Shaykh was born in Lebanon and grew up in Beirut. Her most recent novel, Only in London, was shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. Hanan was educated in Cairo and wrote her first novel there when she was nineteen before returning to Beirut to work as a journalist for Al-Nahar newspaper Al Hasna Magazine. Hanan writes in Arabic and her work has been translated into 21 languages. She has also written a collection of short stories, I Sweep the Sun Off Rooftops; and two plays, Dark Afternoon Tea and Paper Husband which have been performed at the Hampstead Theatre. Her latest work is a story about the life of her mother, Hikayati. Since 1984 she has lived in London with her family.

Lilian Faschinger was born in Carinthia, Austria in 1950. She studied English and History at Karl Franzens University, Graz, where she earned a Ph. D. in English also working there as a college lecturer. She has worked as a literary translator and freelance writer, receiving numerous awards for both her fiction and her translations. Since 1998, she has held several writer-in-residence positions at American colleges and universities, including Dartmouth College and Washington University in St. Louis. Currently, she is writer-in-residence at Bowling Green State University in Ohio.
In addition to several plays, Lilian Faschinger has published two volumes of poetry, two collections of short stories and five novels. Her most successful novel to date, Magdalena the Sinner has been translated into 16 languages