George Lester is the author of YA novels BOY QUEEN and DON’T DIE ALONE, LUCAS COOK!, an actor and a drag queen based in London. When he’s not living in a world of words, he’s living his best life in the biggest wig imaginable as drag queen That Girl. In 2023, following protests at a Drag Storytime event, That Girl was named Pink News Drag Artist of the Year 2023 for her community work and went on to write and star in multi-award nominated show, THAT GIRL VS THE WORLD, which premiered at The Bridge House Theatre in 2024.
George lives in Twickenham with his partner, is obsessed with romcoms of all kinds (gloriously classic to deliciously trashy), and, if pushed, would probably say that they were on a break but Ross still shouldn’t have done what he did.
That Girl can be found on Instagram and Tik-Tok
Lesley was born in Ireland, but moved to the UK to do a media degree many years ago. She now lives in Wiltshire with her husband.
Lesley is currently working on a YA novel but has previously written both children’s and adult fiction. Having completed a Granta nature writing course, Lesley is also exploring this wide genre of writing as a way to re-engage with the natural world and bring the natural world to the foreground in fiction writing.
She’s an avid reader of a wide range of fiction and non-fiction, having multiple books on the go at once. She also loves music, gigs, coffee, sustainable fashion, walks in nature and spending time with family in Ireland and the UK.
She was a secondary school English teacher for a little while, having taken the slightly mad decision to train as a teacher later in life. But she is now working freelance as an English tutor and creative practitioner.
Yasmin Rahman is a British Muslim born and raised in Hertfordshire. She has MAs in Creative Writing and Writing for Young People. Her debut novel, All the Things We Never Said, was nominated for the Carnegie Medal, and was the runner-up YA book in the inaugural Diversity Book Awards. When she’s not writing, Yasmin makes bookish fan art; her designs are sold worldwide on behalf of John Green and Colleen Hoover.
Since the age of 10, Rosie has been able to quote (and sing) every single line of Disney’s Hercules from start to finish. Her love of Greek myth led her to study Classics and English at Jesus College, Oxford, where she spent her first year learning Ancient Greek from scratch – soon discovering that Disney’s Hercules is woefully inaccurate.
For eight years she worked in digital marketing, helping businesses to discover and tell their own stories. You’ll find her words all over the internet, from travel blog posts to SaaS sales pages.
She loves speculative fiction of all stripes: sweeping secondary world fantasies, dystopian sci-fi, swashbuckling historical adventures and a spot of cosy fantasy romance. She never grew out of YA and she’s not ashamed of it.
Grace was born and raised in Yorkshire and, during a childhood spent staying up late to read books under the covers, she decided it was time to start writing them herself.
At university, she studied Journalism, but realised she still preferred the fictional to the factual and now focuses on writing slow-burn female-centric horror.
Outside of writing, Grace works in videogames and enjoys horror movies, theatre visits and anything that could be considered an adventure.
She currently lives by the sea in Brighton, with her little cat.
Former Waterstones bookseller Morgan Owen lives in her own little world, but which world in particular depends on the day. A lifelong fan of escaping reality, she was first published at the age of 12, reviewing the Tom Cruise fan club website (it was okay). She regrettably didn’t graduate from Birmingham University but she’s had lots of different jobs, including as a music journalist and a film PR executive. Morgan is amicably divorced from her American ex-wife and has two black cats called Salem and Binx. Her passions include pop culture, cosy gaming, retrofuturism, space and lucid dreams.
Keris is the bestselling author of fourteen novels (under the name Keris Stainton), including adult and YA romcoms and one Christmas novel for younger readers that is not a romance, but does star a talking pug. She previously worked as a bookseller, a PA in the music industry, and once got a casual job as an arena steward so she could see New Kids on the Block for free.
She was born in Canada, grew up on the Wirral, lived in London for a while and, along with her two teen sons, recently moved back to her home town to live by the sea. She can almost always be found on Twitter or Instagram, avoiding writing her next book (but she’s working on it in her head. Probably).
Keris writes as Olivia Harvey for Hot Key Books.
Dee Benson has been obsessed with books since childhood. Exploring Narnia, adventuring with the Famous Five, and indulging in all things girly with the Sweet Valley Twins sparked her love for reading. She finds it surreal that she now gets to create her own worlds and characters in books of her own.
At university, she studied Molecular Biology with Genetics and only survived it by writing fiction during lectures.
When she isn’t writing, Dee enjoys long walks, good food, and music that makes her wish she could sing. She lives in Liverpool with her husband and two daughters.
Her debut novel, Glow Up, Lara Bloom, is out now.