Martin Edmond was born in Ohakune and grew up in small North Island towns. After university study, and a stint touring internationally with Red Mole theatre, he moved to Sydney, where he lives and writes. In 2013 he received the Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement in Non-Fiction. Maurice Gee is widely regarded as one of New Zealand's greatest authors, for both adults and children. He has received numerous awards, nominations and grants for his adult fiction, including the Wattie Award and the Montana Award, and also for his young adult and children's books. In 2004 he received a Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement. His adult novels include the Plumb trilogy, Going West, Prowlers, Live Bodies and Blindsight. Kirsty Gunn is the author of seven works of fiction including a collection of short stories and a compendium of poetry, essays and fragments, and is published in the UK by Faber and Faber and in over twelve countries and languages throughout the world. Owen Marshall has written, or edited, over twenty-five books. He has held fellowships at the Universities of Canterbury and Otago, and in Menton, France. In 2000 he received the ONZM and in the same year his novel Harlequin Rex won the Montana New Zealand Book Awards Deutz Medal for Fiction. He is an adjunct professor at the University of Canterbury, which awarded him the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters in 2002. He was awarded the CNZM in 2012 for services to literature, and in 2013 received the Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement in Fiction.