Pip Williams is the author of social research, essays, memoir, and the occasional poem, but she is best known for her companion novels, The Dictionary of Lost Words and The Bookbinder of Jericho. Since its publication in 2020, The Dictionary of Lost Words has won a number of major book awards, was chosen for the Reese Witherspoon Book Club and became a New York Times bestseller. As well as being adapted for stage, The Dictionary of Lost Words is being turned into a book concerto and has been optioned for a limited series. Pip’s second novel, The Bookbinder of Jericho, was published in 2023 and was an instant bestseller. In 2024, it won the Australian Book Industry Awards General Fiction Book of the Year and was Dymocks’ number-one book in its Top 101. Both novels were also recognised in ABC Radio National’s Top 100 Books of the 21st Century. Her upcoming novel, The German Ward, continues her exploration of love, art, and history, bringing to life a vivid World War I story of forbidden love and artistic discovery behind the lines in France. Pip’s books have been published around the world and translated into more than 30 languages.

Verity Laughton is a South Australian-based playwright. Her work has been produced throughout Australia and internationally. Known for her versatility, she has written mainstage drama, a musical, adaptations and works for children, dance, radio and the screen. Her awards include AWGIE awards for Radio and Community Theatre, the Griffin and Inscription awards, and the Adelaide Critics Circle Best New Play. She has been nominated for the NSW Premier's Prize, the Bruce Dawe Poetry Prize, the Blake Poetry Prize, the New Dramatists Award, the Rodney Seaborn Award (twice), the STC Patrick White Award and the Griffin Theatre's Martin-Lysicrates Prize.