George R. R. Martin has been called "the American Tolkien," and his books, including the volumes in his landmark A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy series, have been on bestseller lists around the world and inspired the HBO® award-winning series Game of Thrones. He's won four Hugo Awards, two Nebula Awards, the World Fantasy Award, and the Bram Stoker Award. As editor, he's produced the very long-running Wild Cards original anthology series as well as the New Voices series and others. He's also worked for Hollywood and television, being part of the creative team behind such shows as Beauty and the Beast and the new The Twilight Zone.

Gardner Dozois has won fifteen Hugo Awards and twenty-eight Locus Awards for his editing work, plus two Nebula Awards and the Sidewise Award for his own writing. He was the editor of the leading science fiction magazine Asimov's Science Fiction for twenty years and is also the editor of the annual anthology series The Year's Best Science Fiction, now in its Twenty-Eighth Annual Collection. He is the author or editor of more than a hundred books.