Igiaba Scego was born in Rome to a family of Somali ancestry. She holds a PhD in education on postcolonial subjects and has done extensive academic work in Italy and around the world. Her memoir La mia casa è dove sono won Italy's prestigious Mondello Prize, while La linea del colore was awarded with Premio Napoli and Scego received the International Award Viareggio-Répaci in 2021. Her other novels include Oltre Babilonia (2008) and Adua (2015), both available in English. She is a frequent contributor to "La Lettura", literary supplement to Corriere della Sera, and to the magazines Internazionale and Confronti. She also co-edited the anthology series Africana (Feltrinelli), with Chiara Piaggio.

John Cullen (1942-2021) is the translator of many books from Spanish, French, German, and Italian, including Siegfried Lenz's The Turncoat, Juli Zeh's Empty Hearts, Patrick Modiano's Villa Triste, Kamel Daoud's The Meursault Investigation, and Philippe Claudel's Brodeck.

Gregory Conti has translated numerous works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from Italian including works by Emilio Lussu, Rosetta Loy, Elisa Biagini, and Paolo Rumiz. He is a regular contributor to the literary quarterly Raritan.