Nora Keita Jemisin was raised in both Mobile, Alabama and New York City. Bouncing back and forth between the two cities, fiction was Jemisin's anchor. She always knew that she wanted to be a writer and began taking steps to become one in her late 20s and early 30s. Since then, she has found great acclaim and has been heralded by The New York Times as, "The most celebrated science fiction and fantasy writer of her generation." She is most well known for her trilogy of novels, collectively called The Broken Earth. In 2018 she became the first author in history to win three Best Novel Hugo awards in a row, one for each book in the trilogy.

Ursula K. Le Guin, born Ursula Kroeber on October 21st, 1929, in Berkeley California, is a celebrated author of poetry, fiction, non-fiction and more. She's written 23 novels, 12 volumes of short stories, 11 volumes of poetry, 13 children's books, five essay collections, and four works of translation. She's won several Nebulas and Hugos along with a slew of other awards. Known mostly for her science fiction, Le Guin refused to be pigeonholed into a single genre.