Nathalie Handal’s recent collections include "The Republics," lauded as "one of the most inventive books by one of today’s most diverse writers"; the bestselling "The Invisible Star;" the critically acclaimed "Poet in Andalucía;" and "Love and Strange Horses," which The New York Times said “trembles with belonging (and longing).”

Handal is a Lannan Foundation Fellow, winner of the Gold Medal Independent Publisher Book Award, the Alejo Zuloaga Order in Literature, the Virginia Faulkner Award for Excellence in Writing, and an Honored Finalist for the Gift of Freedom Award, among other honors. She is a professor at Columbia University and writes the literary travel column "The City and the Writer" for Words without Borders.

Olimpia Zagnoli was born on a Leap Day in a small town in Northern Italy. After moving to Milan at an early age, she later graduated from the Istituto Europeo di Design in 2006. Since then she's been working as an illustrator full time for editorial clients and advertising agencies. Her clients include The New Yorker, Taschen, Google, Vanity Fair, Sephora, Adidas Originals, The New York Times, and La Repubblica.

Her work has been exhibited in several galleries around the world. In 2011 she received the “Young Guns” award from The Art Directors Club of New York and in 2012 she was selected as “New Visual Artist” of the year for Print Magazine. Her style is characterized by soft shapes and chameleonic colors. She lives in Milan in a house with kaleidoscopic floors.