Mo Xiong is an award-winning science fiction writer who launched his career in 2008, the publication of his novella "Prayer of Doomsday" in Science Fiction World. This story was the first of many in his City of Chaos series, which also includes a novel (Hell Hunt,), two novellas ( "Pray of Doomsday" and "Turtledove"), and several short stories. Beyond this series, he has published four novels and several short stories. His work has been recognized with nominations for the Xingyun Award, Galaxy Award, and several other Chinese SF awards.

Rebecca F. Kuang is a Marshall Scholar, Chinese-English translator, and the Astounding Award-winning and the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and World Fantasy Award nominated author of the Poppy War trilogy and the forthcoming Babel. Her work has won the Crawford Award and the Compton Crook Award for Best First Novel. She has an MPhil in Chinese Studies from Cambridge and an MSc in Contemporary Chinese Studies from Oxford; she is now pursuing a PhD in East Asian Languages and Literatures at Yale, where she studies diaspora, contemporary Chinese literature, and Asian American literature.