bell hooks, born Gloria Jean Watkins in 1952, was an American author. When she died in 2021, hooks left behind a lifetime of thought that was decades ahead of its time, including the New York Times bestseller All About Love: New Visions. A professor of English, African and Afro-American studies, American literature, and women's studies, hooks taught at USC, Yale and Berea College in Kentucky, where the bell hooks centre was established to honour her work. Winner of the American Book Award in 1991 for Yearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural Politics, a 2000 nominee for the NAACP's Image Award, a 2018 inductee into Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame, and one of Time's 100 Women of the Year in 2020, hooks left her mark in every ¿eld she entered.

Yomi Adegoke is a multi-award-winning journalist and author. She is currently a columnist at the Guardian, a contributing editor at Elle magazine and is the former host of the Women's Fiction Prize podcast. In 2018, she co-wrote the bestselling book Slay In Your Lane and the same year was named one of the most influential people in London by the Evening Standard. She also was awarded the Groucho Maverick and Marie Clare Future Shaper awards. In 2021, she was named on the Forbes 30 under 30 list and in 2023 she was awarded a GQ Man of the Year award. Her debut novel The List was a Sunday Times Bestseller.