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Angie Spoto is an American fiction writer living in Edinburgh. Her first two novels are gothic tales inspired by Scotland’s coast and folklore. Her debut novel The Grief Nurse imagines a world where the wealthy hire ‘grief nurses’ to take away their grief. The Grief Nurse was shortlisted for the First Novel Prize and The Bridge Awards Emerging Writer Award. Her second novel The Bone Diver, a gothic sapphic retelling of the legend of the selkies, was longlisted for The Saltires: Scotland’s National Book Awards. @angiespotowrite

Catherine Simpson is a memoirist and novelist whose work dissects family life, exploring themes of mental and physical ill health, life in a female body, family suicide and autism. Her memoir When I Had a Little Sister: the story of a farming family who never spoke (4^th Estate, 2019) was described as ‘superb’, (Sunday Times), ‘riveting’ (Observer) and ‘a study in gender oppression’ (TLS) and was featured on BBC Radio’s Woman’s Hour.  Her second memoir One Body; a retrospective (Saraband, 2022) was shortlisted for the Saltire Society nonfiction book of the year and selected for World Book Night. Her novel Truestory won a Scottish Book Trust New Writers award and was inspired by Catherine’s experience of raising her autistic daughter, Nina. Raising Nina was also the subject of her memoir Hold Fast: motherhood, my autistic daughter and me (Saraband, 2025), which was long listed for a Saltire Award in 2026.Her most recent memoir is Sandwiched: Caring Up & Caring Down (Saraband, 2026).

Chris Barkley’s debut novel, The Man on the Endless Stair was released in 2025 and was described in The Times as ‘An eerie, deeply atmospheric tale of hidden treasure and trauma.’ He was appointed Writer in Residence by the Edinburgh International Book Festival in 2022, working at Spartans Alternative School in North Edinburgh. He has also won the Oxford University Kellogg Writing Competition, the Bedford International Writing Prize, and spoken at the Oxford Centre for Creative Writing. He was shortlisted for The List Award for Best Rising Scottish Author and appeared at Jaipur Literature Festival in 2026.

Katalina Watt is the author of instant Sunday Times Bestselling novel Saltswept (2026, Hodderscape). They were selected as 2024 Writer in Residence for Konstkollektivet in Sweden and granted a 2025 Literature Matters Award from Royal Society of Literature. They were a finalist for 2023 Hugo Award for Best Semiprozine as founding Audio Director for khōréō. They are a Writing Coach at The Novelry and represented by Christabel McKinley at David Higham Associates.