Galsan Tschinag, whose name in his native Tuvan language is Irgit Schynykbajoglu Dsurukuwaa, was born in the early thirties in Mongolia. He is the author of more than thirty books, and his work has been translated into many languages. Tschinag divides his time between Ulaanbataar, the High Altai, and Germany.

John Thomson is the author of A Small Boat at the Bottom of the Sea. His stories have appeared in several literary magazines, including Collateral, Terrain, The Raven’s Perch, and others. His story “Out of Good Ground” won Terrain’s 2018 prize for fiction. He has worked as a government wildlife biologist and as a land steward for a nonprofit land trust in Northern California, where he and his wife live close to their two grown daughters.