Andrej Kurkow, born in 1961 in what was then Leningrad, has lived in Kyiv since his childhood. He studied foreign languages and became a newspaper editor and screenwriter. Since his novel Death and the Penguin, he has been considered one of the Ukraine’s most important contemporary authors. His work has been translated into forty-five languages. Kurkow lives with his family in Ukraine as a freelance writer. In 2023, he was made an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Tania Goryushina, born in Kyiv in 1978, is an artist, illustrator and teacher. She has received multiple awards for her children’s books that she either develops in collaboration with various publishers or which she produces in her own micro publishing house Tyanachu. Tania Goryushina is based in Stockholm.