Ali Smith (Chair)

Ali Smith (Chair) is the author of many novels including How to be both, Artful, There but for the, The Accidental, Hotel World, the Seasonal Quartet series and Companion piece. Hotel World and The Accidental were both shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Orange Prize. How to be both won the Bailey’s Prize, the Goldsmiths Prize and the Costa Novel of the Year Award, and it was shortlisted for the Folio Prize and Man Booker Prize. Autumn was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2017 and Winter was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize 2018, while Summer won the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction in 2021.

Jackie Kay

Jackie Kay was born in Edinburgh. She was the third modern Makar, the Scottish poet laureate, from 2016 to 2021. Her first novel, Trumpet, won the Authors’ Club First Novel Award and the Guardian Fiction Prize. She is also the author of three collections of stories, Why Don’t You Stop Talking, Wish I Was Here, and Reality, Reality; two poetry collections, Fiere and Bantam; a play, The Lamplighter; and her multi-award-winning memoir, Red Dust Road. She is Professor of Creative Writing at Newcastle University and was Chancellor of the University of Salford from 2014 to 2021.