Empress Ciku Kimani-Mwaniki is author of the romance novels NaiRobbery Cocktail, Nairobi Cocktail, Immigrant Cocktail, Cocktail from the Savannah and A Cocktail of Unlikely Tales. She is a long-term newspaper columnist, Gíkúyú language interpreter/transcriber, ghost-writer, editor, host of YouTube channel Author's Feet, village life enthusiast, and an avid mountaineer. Empress views self-happiness as the most important task that life has bestowed on humans and that must be relentlessly pursued. She is married and a mother of two girls.

Scholastica Moraa has an undeniable passion for poetry and stories. She has published two collections of poems, Beautiful Mess and When Love Says Goodbye. She has also co-authored two poetry collections, one titled Dreams and Demons and the other This Heart of Mine. In 2022, she won the Kendeka Literary Award. Her work has been featured in reputable magazines such as the Konch Online Magazine and Imbiza, a South African magazine. She also writes for children.

David Maillu is a prolific author well known for his enthralling novels dating from the 1970s. He has written numerous books including Unfit for Human Consumption, After 4:30, The Flesh, and My Dear Bottle. From the beginning of his writing career, his bold and provocative style both shocked and revolutionised literature from East Africa, firmly entrenching Maillu’s name among the older generation of literary giants. He has won numerous awards for his books, including the Jomo Kenyatta Prize for Literature.

Ciku is an author, journalist, communication and strategy specialist, adventurer and travel writer. She writes both fiction and non-fiction focusing on African stories that need telling. She is an opinion columnist at Bloomberg. Prior to that she was a longtime contributor and Editor at Quartz Africa, and authored almost 70 articles for the site, on topics as wide-ranging as the perils of traveling with an African passport to the optimism inspired by Africa’s first non-fungible token (NFT) art collections. Ciku is the author of two mystery novels (Dance of the Monkeys and Of Goats and Poisoned Oranges), and has written for a variety of outlets, including African Arguments, OkayAfrica, and The Africa Report. She has a wealth of communication and project management experience, having worked for and served as a communication advisor to Dalberg Advisors, The Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Presidential Centre, Open Society Initiative of West Africa, and The Africa Agriculture and Trade Investment Fund. She has travelled to 60 countries, half of them in Africa. She has a Bachelor of Science degree in management from MIT and speaks English, Swahili, and French.

Deborah Auko Tendo is a trained lawyer who is currently working in corporate Kenya as a Logistician/Public and Private Security consultant. She is a cancer and mental health advocate. She is a multilingual who has summited the two tallest mountains in Africa. Outside helping with journals in various colleges,She is a social Media writer who has been contracted to write for the UN Youth conference that was hosted by Kenya in 2023 She has a passion for African storytelling and hopes to gain much more experience in this aspect. While Rough Silk is her first foray into the world of publishing, writing has been her lifelong passion, and "Rough Silk" is the culmination of years of dedication and creativity and its no surprise that the book has broken all barriers to be a Kenyan best seller in the year 2023/2024.

Ciiku is the founder of the Cheza Nami Foundation, a California based nonprofit organization that promotes play-based cultural education and diversity awareness, inspired by Ciiku’s childhood in rural Kenya and the lack of accessible educational resources on Africa for her twins, born in 2007. Ciiku’s work in creating cultural awareness programmes has appeared in CBS News, TEDx Livermore, the Oakland Magazine, and several California news outlets.

Emmanuel Ngwainmbi’s pen name is Emanuel Kane. He is a journalist, author, professor of communication, and an expert in media advocacy and change management communication. Ngwainmbi’s passion for writing fiction began when he was in middle school, when he wrote his first novel. He is influenced by the works of Charles Dickens, Ernest Hemingway, Bernard Fonlon, and Thomas Hardy. His childhood friends fondly call him “Frost”, because they feel a connection to his poetry and Robert Frost’s. While there are many scholarly publications under his name, Ngwainmbi published fiction and poetry under the nom de plume Emanuel Kane to separate his professional pursuits from his passion. Novels published by Kane include Leap in the Dark, Bo Aku, King of the Forest, The Unpaid Dowry, Dawn in Rage, The Masqueraders and When in Met. Poetry titles include: Theaters of War, Whispers on My Pillow and A Bush of Voices. His writings have been translated into Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Afrikaans. He has written about marginalized communities and the plight of people experiencing poverty. His published materials appear in Amazon magazines, Palgrave Macmillan, Routledge, University Press of America, Koehler Books, and Sage. He is a critically acclaimed author and guest commentator at the Voice of America, Democracy Radio, and international conferences.

Goretti Kyomuhendo is one of Uganda’s leading novelists and founding director of the African Writers Trust. She is the author of three other novels: The First Daughter (1996); Secrets No More (1999), which won the Uganda National Literary Award for Best Novel in the same year; and Waiting (2007), published by The Feminist Press in New York and translated into Spanish in 2022. In 2014, she published the Essential Handbook for African Creative Writers. She has also published several children’s books and short stories.

Sarah Haluwa is a community health worker with a passion for creative writing. She is a former columnist for The Nairobian newspaper and the author of Chadi’s Trip, which won the 2021 Jomo Kenyatta Literary Prize in the English Children’s Category.

Lesalon Kasaine, L.K. to his friends, is a fiction-thriller writer, journalist, poet, and biographer living in Nairobi, Kenya. The writer hails from Narok in the beautiful Maasailand. He has also authored Around The Campfire (2017), Through The Eyes of a Pastor’s Wife (2021), and Tender Soul, Warrior Spirit (2023).

Diana Mosoba is a passionate wordsmith with a background in writing, literature, and journalism. Born and raised in Kisii, she discovered a love for writing at an early age and believes in the power of words that transport her readers to new worlds, evoke emotions, and provoke thoughts. When not writing, Diana engages in charity causes, and raising her son.

Rachel Zadok is a South African author and mother. Her first novel, Gem Squash Tokoloshe, was shortlisted for The Whitbread First Novel Award (2005) and The John Llewellyn Rhys Prize (2005). Her second novel, Sister-Sister, is published by Kwela Books.

Helen Moffett is an editor, writer, poet, teacher, and scholar. She has worked with some of the African continent’s brightest literary and academic writers. She has released two collections of poetry: Strange Fruit and Prunings. She serves on the Board of Short Story Day Africa, which produces an annual anthology of stories from all over Africa.