Amal El-Mohtar writes fiction, poetry, and criticism. She won the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Awards for her short story “Seasons of Glass and Iron” and again for her novella This Is How You Lose the Time War, written with Max Gladstone, which also won the BSFA and Aurora awards, and became a New York Times bestseller. Her reviews and articles have appeared in the NYT and on NPR Books. Her solo debut, The River Has Roots, was published in 2025 by Tordotcom. She lives in Ottawa, Canada.

Kurestin Armada spent time as an assistant at The Lotts Agency before becoming a literary agent at P.S. Literary in 2015. She joined Root Literary in 2020. Kurestin is based in New York City and spends most of her time in the city’s thriving indie bookstores. She specializes in science fiction and fantasy, as well as graphic novels for all ages; some of her recent titles include the Hugo award-winning Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh and Hello Sunshine by Rosalie Lin.

Carl Engle-Laird (he/him) is a Hugo-nominated editor at the Tor Publishing Group, where he edits science fiction, fantasy, and horror novels and novellas. He has worked on books that have won the Nebula, Locus, and World Fantasy Awards, among many others. Selected titles include Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir, The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera, and Even Though I Knew the End by C. L. Polk. Carl lives and works in New York City.