Miyuki Miyabe’s debut story, “Warera ga Rinjin no Hanzai” (Our Neighbor’s Crime), won a new-writer award in 1987, and since that time she has become one of Japan’s most popular and best-selling authors. Miyabe’s fantasy novel Brave Story won the Mildred L. Batchelder Award for best children’s book in translation from the American Library Association in 2007. The Gate of Sorrows is an adult novel in the same universe as The Book of Heroes. Her other works available in English include All She Was Worth, Cross Fire, The Sleeping Dragon, Apparitions, ICO: Castle in the Mist, and more.

Hisanori Yoshida, born in 1971 in Osaka, is known for adapting his visual style to the stories he illustrates. He provided the illustrations for Eto Mori’s Kibo no bokujo (Ranch of Hope), inspired by real events in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear accident, which won the JBBY Award in the illustration category in 2017 and has appeared in multiple languages, bringing Yoshida international attention. The Amefuru honya (Rainy Bookshop) series, illustrated by Yoshida and written by Rieko Hinata, has been published to great acclaim in seven languages.

Masao Higashi is a critic and scholar of horror and fantasy literature born in 1958 in Kanagawa. He served as editor-in-chief of the fantasy magazine Genso Bungaku and the ghost-story journal Yu, both of which he founded. His critical study Tono monogatari to kaidan no jidai (The Tale of Tono and the Era of Ghost Stories) won Best Critical/Biographical Work at the 64th Mystery Writers of Japan Awards.