Bessora is a prize-winning French author of Swiss and Gabonese heritage, deeply committed to telling unheard and suppressed stories. In telling Alpha's story, her aim was to create a strong connection between narrator and reader. She says, "Alpha is like your brother, whispering in your ear. You are very close to him. So anyone can identify with Alpha: he raises the question of destiny. Do we take it in hand? What meaning do we give to our life?"

Sarah Ardizzone is a translator, working from French to English. She has won the Marsh Award for Children's Literature in Translation two times (2005 and 2009), and the Scott-Moncrieff Prize once in 2007.

Born in Paris, Barroux spent much of his childhood in North Africa. He later attended art school in France, worked as an art director and then moved to New York and Montréal and has since worked in children's illustration and press cartoons. He has been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post and Forbes Magazine.