Contributors

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.

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.

Jay Bahadur is a journalist specialising in Somali piracy. He has featured as an expert on the BBC's Today Programme and CBS News, and his articles have been published in The Times and Globe and Mail. This is his first book. Profile published the hardback in 2011 [9781846683633].

Caroline Bain is the Senior Commodities Economist at Capital Economics. She previously held the same title at the Economist Intelligence Unit. She holds economics degrees from Trinity College Dublin and the University of London.

Gurnek Bains is CEO of YSC, a global consultancy applying psychology to bring about positive change in individuals, teams and culture. Founded in 1990, YSC's mainly multi-national client base comprises over a third of the FTSE100 companies.

One of America's most prestigious fiction writers, Russell Banks is president of the International Parliament of Writers and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His work has been translated into twenty languages and has received numerous international prizes and awards. He lives in upstate New York.

Margaret Atwood, whose work has been published in more than 45 countries, is the author of more than 50 works of fiction, poetry, critical essays and graphic novels, including The Handmaid's Tale, Cat's Eye and The MaddAddam Trilogy. Her latest novel, The Testaments, is a co-winner of the 2019 Booker Prize. She is the recipient of the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, the Franz Kafka International Literary Prize and the PEN Centre USA Lifetime Achievement Award, among others. Her latest collection is Old Babes in the Wood.

Tariq Ashkanani is a solicitor and co-host of the writing podcast Page One. His debut novel, Welcome to Cooper, won the Bloody Scotland Debut Award 2022, as well as being shortlisted for both the CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger and Capital Crime Fingerprint Award. His second novel, Follow Me to the Edge, was published in 2022. His upcoming novel, The Midnight King, will be published by Viper in 2025. He lives in Edinburgh with his wife and two sons.

Oana was born in Transylvania, to parents of Romanian, Greek and Yemeni background. After the fall of communism the family emigrated to Sweden. Oana has worked in the City of London as a macroeconomist, and as an advisor to the Romanian prime minister, but since 2018 she has lived on a Greek island, converting a heritage villa into a hotel.

Roberto Arlt was born in Buenos Aires in 1900, the son of a Prussian immigrant from Poznán, Poland. Brought up in the city's crowded tenement houses – the same tenements which feature in The Seven Madmen – Arlt had a deeply unhappy childhood and left home at the age of sixteen. As a journalist, Arlt described the rich and vivid life of Buenos Aires; as an inventor, he patented a method to prevent ladders in women's stockings. Arlt died suddenly of a heart attack in Buenos Aires in 1942. He was the author of the novels The Mad Toy, The Flamethrowers, Love the Enchanter and several plays.

Nina Renata Aron is a writer and editor living in Oakland, California. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, the New Republic, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and elsewhere.

Alice Ash is a writer and maker of short films. Her story 'Eggs' was longlisted for the Galley Beggar Prize 2019, and her writing has been featured in Hotel, 3:AM Magazine, the TLS and Extra Teeth, among others. She is based in Brighton. Find her on Twitter as @aliceash_.

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.