Becky Bloom was born in Greece. She studied architecture at the University of California at Berkeley and she has lived and worked in many countries. In 1996 she founded Siphano Picture Books, a company that 'develops picture books'. Siphano works with artists from around the world to develop their characters and stories. A select number of new picture book titles each year are published in many languages and countries - from North America to Europe to the Middle East to the Far East. Siphano's own editions are published in English for the UK & Ireland, and they license their titles to publishers in other countries. Becky has written many of Siphano's books herself such as When Parents Go to School, Mr. Cuckoo, The Best Place on Earth, and Just a Wee Hat. Becky is married and has three children.

Paddy Bouma, born in Cape Town has been a lecturer in Illustration and Fine Arts at the University of Stellenbosch since 1971. Paddy's illustrations include Are We Nearly There shortlisted for the Kate Greenaway Medal, 1986, and Valentine and Upsidedown Cake by Carol Carrick. She both wrote and illustrated four books in the Bertie series for Bodley Head, and is currently involved in illustrating for Bitterkomix, a satirical South African comic series.

Erzsi Deak is an American writer. A journalist for over twenty years, she now writes children's books in Paris, France. Her essay, "The Envelope Thief," appeared in the collection of short stories, They Only Laughed Later (Europublic Press). She is the co-anthologist for the book, Period Pieces, due out from HarperCollins US in Spring 2003, and is the author of the story, "Someday When You Grow Up, Girl," in the book. Erzsi is on the board of directors of the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators. For the last three years, she and her writing group have met once a week -- under the penalty of expulsion if anyone misses a meeting

Diane Duane was born in 1952 in Manhattan, and grew up in the New York suburbs. Diane wrote constantly for her own amusement all during her childhood and adolescence, neither of which were either particularly traumatic or particularly interesting. At school she fell in love with science, and won a New York State Regents scholarship in science and nursing. She was no fan of math, though, and when she went to college to study astrophysics and realized that her non-talent for math was getting her nowhere, she switched majors and went to nursing school, graduating three years later from Pilgrim State Hospital School of Nursing and passing her state boards shortly thereafter. After that she went to work as a psychiatric nurse at Payne Whitney Clinic, part of New York Hospital, still writing for fun in her spare time. Friends who read her work around this time told her she should submit it professionally. After a year spent working as assistant to television and science fiction writer David Gerrold, she did so, and her first (adult) fantasy novel was published in 1981. Duane then turned her attention to a genre she had always loved, young adult books, and published So You Want to Be a Wizard in 1983. The tale of two ordinary kids who become friends as they learn to negotiate the complex and dangerous magical and ethical landscape of modern wizardry was kindly received by the critics and enthusiastically received by its readers, who clamored for more. Duane followed with Deep Wizardry in 1985, High Wizardry in 1990, A Wizard Abroad in 1993, and The Wizard's Dilemma in 2001. Critics revisiting the realms
of young-adult fantasy on the strength of the success of J.K. Rowlings' books have described Duane's tales of the young wizards Nita Callahan and Kit Rodrigues as "the thinking kid's 'Harry Potter'", and a new third generation of young fans is now discovering the books, the second generation having started introducing their own children to them in the 1990's. The
next volume in the Young Wizards series, A Wizard Alone, is being prepared for publication in autumn 2002. Duane lives in Ireland with her husband and frequent collaborator of
fifteen years, Belfast-born fantasy writer Peter Morwood. There, in a rural town land forty miles south of Dublin, the two of them pursue total galactic domination in company with three cats, four computers, an ever-growing crowd of characters native to their novels and television work, and (at last count) six hundred and twenty cookbooks.

Sandra Guy's work has been published in literary magazines in France, Britain and the United States (Cicada ran her poem, "Grandfather," in its February 2002 issue). Her poem, "Evening," is included in the Bobbi Katz poetry anthology, due out from Dutton in 2003. In her earlier transformations, she ran a theatre production company in London (Blood and Honey Productions Ltd) and worked with children's theatre in Romania. Having just completed her teen novel, "Goddess in the City," she is at work on two new novels "Fern Unfurling" and "The Twelve Courts of Midnight." Sandra lives in Paris, where she teaches and writes. She is the editor of the SCBWI-France newsletter, "Expression," and the Coordinator for the SCBWI International Market Report.

Stephen Mooser, author and president of SCBWI, earned a BA in motion pictures and masters degree in journalism. He has worked as a magazine reporter, documentary filmmaker and freelance treasure hunter. He began writing for children in 1970, and has penned more than 50 books, from picture books to interactive science fiction. He is the co-founder and current president of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.

Ben Norland, art director at Walker Books, was born in London in 1965, and spent the first half of his childhood in the city. He spent seven years training as a fine artist, first at the Slade School of Art and then at the Royal College of Art. After college, he worked in a series of artist-led co-operatives, based in disused warehouse spaces in north London. At the same time he began working as a freelance designer, principally at Walker Books.

Bridget Strevens-Marzo is half-English, half-Catalan, which is probably why she feels at home in France. She began the work that she still likes best, age 3, in her artist father's London studio. The first three picture books which she wrote and illustrated were published by Little Brown, UK and NTC Passport Books in the early 1990s. After working in a multimedia company, she created a series of 'play' books adding a new drawing tool to her range of brushes and pencils; the computer stylus. Her illustrations appear regularly in French children's magazines and in 2001 she was invited to work as a temporary editor at Bayard's 'Pomme d'Api'. She now has three very different types of books at development stage with British, French and Australian publishers. She also teaches at Parsons Paris School of Design.

Tony Ross, born in London trained at the Liverpool School of Art and has worked as a cartoonist, a graphic designer, as the Art Director of an advertising agency, and as Senior Lecturer in Art at Manchester Polytechnic. Over the past few years, Tony Ross has become one of the best known creators of original and traditional picture books and his work has been sold all over the world. His first title for Andersen Press in 1976 was Goldilocks and the Three Bears, which was voted one of the best books of the year by the Federation of Children's Books Groups. Since then he has produced a whole series of highly popular traditional fairy tales, re-told and updated in his own inimitable style, which combines humorous text with flamboyant use of line and colour. He has now produced over 50 picture books for Andersen Press, including 6 in the Dr Xargle series and 6 in the much-loved Towser series. Towser is a scruffy, unheroic dog who is also the star of 26 5-minute animated films, which have been shown by television stations all over the world. Tony's books have the kind of universal appeal which allows them to be published in countries as far apart as the USA, Japan, and Greenland. Tony Ross has won the Silver Paintbrush Award for the best illustrations by a foreign artist three times. First, for his version of Jack and the Beanstalk, then for Towser and Sadie's Birthday, and The Second Princess won the award for him again in 1995. I Want My Potty won the Dutch Silver Pencil Award for the best text by a foreign author in 1987 and became a number one children's bestseller in the UK. In 1986 I'm Coming to Get You won the German Children's Book Prize, and in 1991 Dr Xargle's Book Of Earth Tiggers was shortlisted and highly commended for the Kate Greenaway Medal and A Fairy Tale was shortlisted for the Smarties Award. The Second Princess was shortlisted for the Smarties Award in 1994. Tony's latest book is I Want to Be a Cowgirl written by Jeanne Willis and published September 2001.

Andree-Jeanne Totemeyer has specialised and lectured in children's and youth literature for 25 years at four different universities and has more than 50 journal articles and chapters in books to her credit. A former professor and head of the Department of Information Studies of the University of Namibia, Jeanne took early retirement during 1997 in order to have more time for her work in the area of children's literature and readership and creative writing for children. Jeanne has acted as a judge for many children's literary prizes and she regularly offers demo-talks to educators, parents, librarians and children's book enthusiasts on topics in the field of children's books.

Thomas van der Walt is a senior lecturer at the University of South Africa in Pretoria where he teaches children's literature to post graduates. He is also the founder and chair of the Children's Literature Research Unit at the University of South Africa. The author of more than 50 articles, he reviews children's books for several South African newspapers and is involved in judging South African children's book awards. He has just been appointed as an associate editor of the Oxford Encyclopedia for Children's Literature. Thomas is a founder- and board member of Biblionef South Africa, an organisation that distributes children's books to needy children in Southern Africa and was recently elected on a three person committee to establish an African Research Society for Children's Literature and organise a first African Conference on Children's Literature Research in August 2002.

Marjorie van Heerden was born in South Africa. She grew up on a farm and from an early age she loved drawing animals and people. She went on to study fine art in Cape Town. After that she worked in advertising, taught Graphic Art at Stellenbosch University and also worked as a professional illustrator and sculptor. Some years later, while reading to her baby daughter, she became interested children's books. Since 1983, Marjorie has devoted her professional life to writing and illustrating children's books. While living in Chicago she made valuable contacts with the international children's book world and, back in South Africa she organized a number of international symposiums and children's book festivals. Apart from her own picture books for very young children, Marjorie developed a strong focus on creating educational books and readers for the underprivileged masses in Africa. More than 50 books have been published with her illustrations, in about 26 languages. About a dozen of those picture books she both authored and illustrated. Marjorie and her husband moved to Athens in 1999 where she has illustrated three books for young Greek readers, including a Greek version of a Katherine Paterson book.