Anita Desai is a novelist, short-story writer, and author of children's books. She was born in Mussoorie, India, and studied at Delhi University. Desai is the author of several novels, including Fire on the Mountain, as well as Clear Light of Day, In Custody, and Fasting, Feasting, each of which was short-listed for the Booker Prize. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and of Girton College, Cambridge and Clare Hall, Cambridge. Desai is the John E. Burchard Professor of Writing at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Mei-Yim Low is a London-based artist who has illustrated several children's books.