Contributors

Bandi is the Korean word for firefly. It is the pseudonym of an anonymous dissident writer still living in North Korea.

Lester Bangs started out as a record reviewer for Rolling Stone, went on to write for and then edit the magazine Creem, before moving to New York and covering the burgeoning punk scene, writing in daily newspapers and the Village Voice. Bangs died suddenly at the age of 33 in 1982. A biography of Lester Bangs, Let it Blurt was published in 2001.

Marta Barone was born in Turin in 1987. She is a translator and a freelance editor. Her novel Sunken City, translated into six languages, was shortlisted for the Strega Prize and won the Vittorini and Fiesole Prizes. She is also the author of several children's books.

Luke Barley is a senior advisor on trees and woodland with the National Trust, providing leadership, guidance and support on woodland management across the charity's 250,000-hectare landholding. He is a chartered forester, a professional member of the Arboricultural Association and a trustee of the Ancient Tree Forum, and previously worked as a ranger helping to care for ancient woods in South London, the Lake District and the Peak District. He lives in Sheffield with his family.

Robert Barrington is Professor of Anti-Corruption Practice at the University of Sussex. A leading authority on corruption, he was head of Transparency International for over a decade, during which time he campaigned to introduce the Bribery Act, the UK's Anti-Corruption Strategy and the introduction of Unexplained Wealth Orders. He has advised the Ministry of Justice and the Cabinet Office, among others.

Caitlin Blackwell Baines is an art historian and author, specialising in Georgian art and architecture. Born in Toronto, she later emigrated to the UK to pursue an MA from the Courtauld Institute of Art and a PhD from the University of York in art history. Upon completing her studies, she moved to the Isle of Bute off the Western coast of Scotland, and worked as a curator at Mount Stuart, a late Victorian Gothic Revival palace. When she isn't visiting haunted houses and recording her ghost story-themed history podcast, Haunted Homes, Caitlin is based in East Sussex.

Tony Ballantyne is the author of Twisted Metal, Blood and Iron and the Recursion series, and many short stories. Tony grew up in County Durham in the North East of England. He studied Maths at Manchester University before moving to London, where he taught Maths and IT.
His first SF sale was "The Sixth VNM," which appeared in Interzone 138; since then he has had short stories appear in magazines and anthologies worldwide. He has also written romantic fiction and satirical pieces for various magazines such as Private Eye. Recursion, his first novel, was published by Tor UK in 2004.
Tony has been nominated for the BSFA and Philip K Dick awards. He now lives in Oldham with his wife and two children.

Kalinda Ashton was born in Melbourne in 1978. She has been involved in student, union and community campaigns. She is an associate editor of Overland magazine, and a teacher of writing and editing. The Danger Game is her first novel.

Anna Aslanyan is a journalist, translator and public service interpreter. She contributes to
the Times Literary Supplement, the Guardian and other UK-based publications, writing
about books and arts. Her translations from Russian include Post-Post Soviet? Art,
Politics and Society in Russia at the Turn of the Decade, a collection of essays edited by
Ekaterina Degot et al. (University of Chicago Press, 2013); contemporary short stories for
Best European Fiction (Dalkey Archive, 2013, 2018); and A Journey to Inner Africa, a
19th-century travelogue by Egor Kovalevsky (Amherst College Press, 2020). Her popular
history of translation, Dancing on Ropes: Translators and the Balance of History, was
published by Profile in May 2021.

David Astle is a Melbourne-based writer of non-fiction, fiction and drama. He co-hosts Letters and Numbers (the Australian version of Countdown) as the dictionary expert, and his crosswords appear in Australian papers The Ageand Sydney Morning Herald.

Ray Axford took up archery in 1975 and qualified as a County Coach in 1982. He has coached throughout the Southern Region and has also lectured widely on human anatomy and biomechanics. He has provided illustrations for the National Coaching Manual and has written and illustrated articles for archery magazines. Formerly senior designer and development engineer for an aircraft instrument company, he was responsible for several innovative aircraft and missile control systems and later, as a design consultant, he was involved in the concept and design of various advanced technology projects in America, Europe and the United Kingdom.