Sanchita Basu De Sarkar is the owner of the Children's Bookshop in Muswell Hill, which is the oldest children's bookshop in the country. She has served as a judge for multiple children’s book prizes including the Costa Book Award, the Branford Boase Award, and the Times/Children House Prize and the Week Junior. She is an award-winning bookseller for her creative and community-led bookselling. A rising star in the publishing world, she is a big supporter of South Asian kidlit and their creators.

Chitra Soundar is an internationally published, award-winning author of children’s books, screenwriter and an oral storyteller. She is the author of the acclaimed Sona Sharma series, and You’re with me, mummy-baby picture books. Her books have been shortlisted for many awards and won many. She is the creator of Nikhil & Jay, a BBC preschool sitcom. She is the founder of The Colourful Bookshelf, a curated list of children’s books by British writers and illustrators of colour and the co-founder of SAILFest UK, a festival that celebrates British South Asian illustration and literature.

Sin​éad Gosai is a dynamic and creative PR Consultant with close to 20 years’ experience working in the media, not-for-profit and publishing industries. She has developed press strategies for international authors and bestsellers, created publicity campaigns for beloved children’s book creators, and managed busy press offices and teams across multiple organisations.

Gita Ralleigh grew up reading fantasy adventures that took her to faraway lands. The closest she came was on family holidays to India, where old palaces, ice-capped mountains, monkeys and elephants were part of everyday life. She has worked as a medical doctor for over thirty years, and published two poetry books. Her children's fantasy novels, The Destiny of Minou Moonshine and  The Voyage of Sam Singh are out now with Zephyr/Bloomsbury. She lives in London with her two children and teaches creative writing to undergraduates at Imperial College.