Matt Bates worked as the lead fiction buyer for WH Smith Travel prior to embarking on a creative writing degree at London University. He has been a judge on both the Costa Book Prize and the Booksellers’ Association debut fiction prize. He was the curator of the influential 2017 WHS promotion that celebrated the 50th anniversary of the decriminalization of homosexuality in 1967 and is Editor at Large for Muswell Press.

Karen McLeod is writer in residence at The Bookseller Crow on the Hill and a visiting lecture in creative writing at UCAS. She won the Betty Trask Prize for her debut In Search of the Missing Eyelash and her memoir Lifting Off was published to great acclaim in June ’24. She performs comedy as Barbara Brownskirt and regularly works with Polari the LGBTQ+ Literary Salon.

Sarah and Kate Beal are the owners and publishers of Muswell Press. With over 50 years publishing experience between them at some of the UK’s most influential publishers, including Bloomsbury, Faber, Oneworld and Harpercollins. They started Muswell Press in 2017 and have since been nominated and won several awards including Polari, Fortnum & Mason, IPG Newcomer and British Book Awards Finalist.