Faares Mahdy is from Palestine and is qualified as a social worker and photojournalist and has a diploma in the arts. He has written 10 short stories and a number of poems, unpublished because of the political circumstances back home. He won the best Arabic poet & performance in Cairo in early 2001 and is hoping to start an Arabic writers' group in Glasgow for communication and exchange between different cultures and opinions. He looks forward to finishing his first book in 2010 and prays to God for no more problems in his life.

Jessica Parkinson, a member of Student PEN, was born in Malawi and brought up in Canada. She studied International Development and Women’s Studies in Peterborough, Ontario and has lived in such places as Ghana and Penghu. She is now settled in Kilcreggan on the west coast of Scotland, in a house that has been in her family for five generations. Jessica writes poetry and is currently completing a first novel. She draws on her search for home for inspiration.