Christopher Brookmyre

Variously categorised in the thriller, tartan noir and Paisley bampot genres, Chris' work has now been televised. His fantastically popular titles now number 9 novels, ranging from the debut Quite Ugly One Morning through A Big Boy Did It And Ran Away to Be My Enemy.

Colette Bryce

Derry-born poet whose first book The Heel of Bernadette won the Aldeburgh Prize for best first collection and the inaugural Strong Award in Ireland. The Full Indian Rope Trick won the National Poetry Competition 2003. She is the current fellow in Creative Writing at the University of Dundee.

Elizabeth Burns

Lancaster-based poet, winner of the 2005 Myeloma prize with The Butterfly House. Numerous publications and anthology credits, including Ophelia and Other Poems and The Gift of Light.

Ron Butlin

Prize-winning international novelist (The Sound of My Voice won the Prix Mille Pages 2004 and the Prix Luciole 2005), and prominent Scots poet, commissioned to work with Scottish Chamber Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony and Edinburgh String Quartet. His music theatre piece Good Angel, Bad Angel was premiered at the Traverse in 2005.

Margaret Elphinstone

Award-winning author and Professor of Writing at Strathclyde University. Author of seven novels as well as short stories, poetry and academic tracts. Titles include A Sparrow's Flight, An Apple from a Tree, Islanders, The Sea Road, Hy Brasil, Voyageurs and Gato.

Julian Goodacre

Peebles-based English bagpipe maker and musician (one of three Goodacre brothers performing traditional pipe music in three-part harmony). Also a specialist in Scottish bellows, small, Highland and Borders pipes.

Brian Johnstone

Fife-based poet and co-founder and director of Stanza, the annual poetry festival in St Andrews. Has published two collections, The Lizard Silence and Homing, and has been translated into Catalan, Swedish, German and Polish. In 2003, he won Poetry at the (Edinburgh) Fringe and the Writers' Bureau Poetry Competition.

Brian McCabe

Currently writer in residence at Edinburgh University, and previously in Perth and St Andrews. Noted short story exponent (The Lipstick Circus, In a Dark Room with a Stranger, A Date with my Wife), poet (Spring's Witch, One Atom to Another, Body Parts) and novelist (The Other McCoy).

Nick Nairn

Internationally renowned chef and tv presenter, and youngest winner of the Michelin Star in Scotland. Runs a cookery school near Port of Mentieth in the Trossachs. Titles include New Scottish Cookery, Island Harvest, Wild Harvest, Top 100 Chicken and Salmon Recipes.

Christopher Rush

St Monans-born retired schoolteacher, winner of two SAC book awards and shortlisted for the McVitie Prize. Titles include A Twelvemonth and a Day (semi-autobiographical, and made into the film Venus Peter), A Resurrection of a Kind (poetry), Peace Comes Dropping Slow and Into the Ebb (short stories), and Last Lesson of the Afternoon (novel).

Rab Wilson

Lallans poet, former miner and now psychiatric nurse based in Sanquhar. Winner of the McCash Prize, and a regular at Edinburgh, Wigtown and Burns Festivals. Titles include Somerfield Checkout Counter and the Scots translation of The Ruba'iyat of Omar Khayyam.