Sahitya Akademi awardee Paro Anand has written and spoken extensively on critical issues through her stories. As a storyteller and children’s literature activist, she has been invited to address children, young adults and adults all over India and many parts of the world including Harvard University. Here, she spoke on Disruptive Innovation in children’s literature in India. She has worked with over 3 lakh children, especially those in difficult circumstances, using stories as a safe space to talk about hard things. She has received several awards including featuring on the IBBY Honor List and the Karubaki Award for fearless writing.

Swami Prem Parivartan, better known as Peepal Baba, is an environmentalist and the founder of Give Me Trees Trust, a Delhi-headquartered charitable trust that has grown into a nationwide community tree-planting and conservation movement. Born in Chandigarh in 1966, he planted his first tree at the age of eleven at Pune Military Station in 1977, and never really stopped. What began as a childhood hobby club called "Give Me Trees" now brings together over 18,000 volunteers and interns across the country, caring for saplings in gardens, on roadsides and highways, and at schools, military stations, mountains and river banks. The Trust plants for the "three Bs" - bees, birds and butterflies - with native shade and fruit trees as the priority, and has planted and helped preserve around 25 million trees to date. Peepal Baba holds a postgraduate degree in English Literature and a Masters in Mass Communication, and taught college students for years alongside his tree work. He continues to travel across India, inspiring children, colleges, clubs and institutions to embrace the love of trees.

His memoir ‘Ghosts on Peepal Trees’ was released earlier this year.

Rahul Bhattacharya is the author, most recently, of the novel Railsong, winner of the Godrej Literature Live! Award and the FICCI Publishing Award and an India Today, Hindu, Frontline, Mint, Deccan Herald book of the year.

The Sly Company of People Who Care, his first novel, won the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize and the Hindu Literary Prize, and was shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary and the Commonwealth Book prizes. His travelogue, Pundits from Pakistan, is a Wisden Cricketer top ten cricket book of all time. His journalism has appeared, among others, in the Guardian, the Economist, the New York Times, Hindustan Times and India Today. 

Samit Basu has been writing and publishing for the last two decades. His recent novels include The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport, shortlisted for the Locus, Goodreads and Dragon Awards, and The City Inside, named one of the Best SFF Books of 2022 by The Washington Post and shortlisted, as Chosen Spirits, for the JCB Prize in 2020. His debut novel in India was The Simoqin Prophecies, the first in a bestselling fantasy trilogy, and in the UK and US, Turbulence.

In addition to novels, Basu has written and co-directed a Netflix Original film. He has written comics, short stories in multiple genres for Indian and international anthologies, as well as several books for younger readers in India. He has worked in TV, film and digital media, and has been a journalist and columnist for various Indian and international media. He currently teaches writing at several Indian and international workshops. 

The Pictures of Darpan Ray is his first work of contemporary fiction.

Suparna Sharma is a freelance investigative journalist and editor based in India who has covered crime, conflicts, national disasters and corruption across a three-decade career.

Her 2023 investigation for Al Jazeera into the deaths of two seniors in a fire at a facility in Delhi exposed greed and negligence within India’s multi-billion dollar elder-care industry and a coordinated effort by authorities to bury the truth. She has also written on the reprisals faced by India’s top women wrestlers after accusing the country’s wrestling chief of sexual harassment and on how graduates from India’s elite engineering and business schools have helped political consultancies manipulate voters and elections.

Her articles have appeared in Al Jazeera, Rolling Stone India, BBC Africa, the Indian Express, Frontline and others. Her previous appointments include resident editor of the Asian Age overseeing the daily’s Delhi, Calcutta and London editions, chief subeditor at the country’s largest newspaper Times of India, and a senior correspondent on the Indian Express’ special investigations team. She has also led newsrooms and teams of reporters.

In 2015, Dr Vandita Dubey, a US-trained clinical psychologist with a growing urban therapy practice, left the city for a Himalayan village. The family of two adults, two young children and a dog had to adjust to new realities and sometimes create them.

One such reality Vandita co-created is the Himalayan Writing Retreat (HWR). A thriving lifestyle business, it is now a destination for many seeking inner peace, or to learn a craft. Often both. 
With over 25 years in the mental health field, Vandita has conducted talks, workshops and retreats for individuals and organizations. She has also been leading the popular 'Write to Heal and Grow' workshop at HWR since 2018. The Great Cubicle Escape is her second book

An avid reader, runner and hiker, she refuses to be on social media or WhatsApp. Instead, she loves spending her time watching the snow covered Himalayas over endless cups of tea. She continues to live in her village home with her husband, three dogs, and a dog-like cat.