Corrado Calabrò, born in Reggio Calabria, completed his first book when he was twenty and has since published seventeen more collections. HIs poems have been translated into more than a dozen languages and they have been collected in a theatre recital that toured extensively throughout Italy, Europe, Australia, and South America. His novel, Ricorda di dimenticarla, a finalist for the Strega Prize, was the basis for the 2006 movie Il mercante di pietre, (The Stone Merchant). In 2011 Calabrò was awarded The Cetonaverde Prize for career achievement.

Genni Gunn is an author, musician and translator. Born in Trieste, she came to Canada as a child. She has published twelve books: three novels -- Solitaria (longlisted for the Giller Prize 2011), Tracing Iris (made into a film, The Riverbank), and Thrice Upon a Time (finalist for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize); three short story collections -- Permanent Tourists, Hungers and On the Road; three poetry collections -- Faceless, Mating in Captivity (finalist for the Gerald Lampert Award), and Accidents; and a collection of personal essays, TRACKS: Journeys in Time and Place. As well, she has translated from Italian three collections of poems by two renowned Italian authors: Devour Me Too (finalist for the John Glassco Translation Prize) and Traveling in the Gait of a Fox (finalist for the Premio Internazionale Diego Valeri for Literary Translation) by Dacia Maraini, and Text Me by Corrado Calabrò. Two of Gunn’s books have been translated into Italian and Dutch.

As well as books, she has written an opera libretto, Alternate Visions, produced by Chants Libres in 2007 (music by John Oliver), and projected in a simulcast at The Western Front in Vancouver; her poem, "Hot Summer Nights" has been turned into classical vocal music by John Oliver, and performed internationally. Before she turned to writing full-time, Gunn toured Canada extensively with a variety of bands (bass guitar, piano and vocals). Since then, she has performed at hundreds of readings and writers’ festivals. Gunn has a B.F.A. and an M.F.A. from the University of British Columbia. She lives in Vancouver.