Esi Edugyan has won the Scotiabank Giller Prize for Fiction twice, for her novels Half-Blood Blues and Washington Black. She has twice been a finalist for the Man Booker Prize and has been shortlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award, the Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction, and the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, among others. Edugyan's debut novel, The Second Life of Samuel Tyne, was published internationally to critical acclaim. She has held fellowships in the US, Scotland, Iceland, Germany, Hungary, Finland, Spain, and Belgium. Edugyan lives in Victoria, British Columbia.
Marina Endicott worked as an actor and director in Toronto and in England. She published her first novel, Open Arms (Douglas & McIntyre), in 2001. Good to a Fault (Freehand Books 2008) won the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book, Canada/Caribbean region. The Little Shadows (Doubleday 2011) was nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. Endicott also co-wrote the screenplay for the documentary film Vanishing Point, released in 2012.