Larry Niven is the award-winning author of the Ringworld series, along with many other science fiction masterpieces and fantasy including the Magic Goes Away series. His Beowulf's Children, co-authored with Jerry Pournelle and Steven Barnes, was a New York Times bestseller. He has received the Nebula Award, five Hugos, four Locus Awards, two Ditmars, the Prometheus, and the Robert A. Heinlein Award, among other honors. He lives in Chatsworth, California.

Steven Barnes is a New York Times bestselling, Hugo Award–nominated author of Twelve Days among other novels, a screenwriter, and creator of the Lifewriting™ writing course, which he has taught nationwide. He won an NAACP Image Award as coauthor of the Tennyson Hardwick mystery series with his spouse, Tananarive Due, and actor Blair Underwood.