Alex Skovron was born in Poland, lived briefly in Israel, and came to Australia aged nine. He is the author of five poetry collections, most recently Autographs (2008), and a short novel, The Poet (2005). Awards for his poetry include the Wesley Michel Wright Prize, the John Shaw Neilson Award, the Australian Book Review Poetry Prize, and for his first book, The Rearrangement (1988), the Anne Elder and Mary Gilmore awards. His novella was joint winner of the FAW Christina Stead Award for fiction. Alex’s New & Selected Poems is in preparation. He lives in Melbourne and works as a freelance editor.
Claire Gaskin has been publishing for over twenty years. Her collection entitled, a bud, was published by John Leonard Press in 2006, and was shortlisted in the John Bray SA Festival Awards for Literature in 2008. She was the 2009 recipient of the Alan Marshall scholarship. She has been a long term teacher of writing and literature in adult education. She was the Victorian editor of the literary journal Blue Dog from 2007 till 2010.