Owen Sheers (born 20 September 1974) is a Welsh poet, author, playwright, actor and TV presenter. He is the first writer in residence to be appointed by any national rugby union.

Owen Sheers was born in Suva, Fiji in 1974 and brought up in Abergavenny, South Wales. He was educated at King Henry VIII comprehensive school, Abergavenny, New College, Oxford, and at the University of East Anglia where he did an MA in Creative Writing. He worked on The Big Breakfast as a researcher.

The winner of an Eric Gregory Award and the 1999 Vogue Young Writer’s Award, his first collection of poetry, The Blue Book (Seren, 2000), -a collection of poems about family, first love and farming life - was short-listed for the Wales Book of the Year and the Forward Poetry Prize Best 1st Collection, 2001. His debut prose work The Dust Diaries (Faber 2004), a non-fiction narrative set in Zimbabwe, was short-listed for the Royal Society of Literature’s Ondaatje Prize and won the Wales Book of the Year 2005.

In 2004 Owen was Writer in Residence at The Wordsworth Trust and was selected as one of the Poetry Book Society’s 20 Next Generation Poets. Owen’s 2nd collection of poetry, Skirrid Hill (Seren, 2005) won a 2006 Somerset Maugham Award. Unicorns, almost his one man play based on the life and poetry of the WWII poet Keith Douglas was developed by Old Vic, New Voices, and performed by Joseph Fiennes.

Daniel Abse, CBE (born 22 September 1923) is a Welsh poet.

Abse was born in Cardiff, Wales to a Jewish family. He is the younger brother of politician and reformer Leo Abse and the eminent psychoanalyst, Wilfred Abse. Abse first studied medicine at the University of Wales, and then at Westminster Hospital and King's College London.

Although best known as a poet, Abse worked in the medical field, and was a specialist at a chest clinic for over thirty years. He has received numerous literary awards and fellowships for his writing. In 1989, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Wales. His first poetic volume, After Every Green Thing, was published in 1949. His autobiographic work, Ash on a Young Man's Sleeve, was published in 1954. He won the Welsh Arts Council Award in both 1971 and 1987, and the Cholmondeley Award in 1985. He has been a Fellow of The Royal Society of Literature since 1983.

Abse has lived for several decades in the northwest area of London, mainly near Hampstead where he has considerable ties. For several years he wrote a column for the "Ham & High" (Hampstead and Highgate Express) local newspaper. The articles were subsequently published in book form.

Ben Fogle (born 3 November 1973) is an English television presenter, adventurer and writer.

Fogle is the son of British actress Julia Foster and Bruce Fogle. He was educated at two independent schools: The Hall School in Hampstead in London, and Bryanston School in Blandford Forum, Dorset, followed by the University of Portsmouth and the University of Costa Rica. Fogle became a Midshipman in the Royal Naval Reserve, serving as an officer on HMS Blazer.

Fogle first came to public notice by participating in the BBC reality show Castaway 2000, which followed a group of thirty-six people marooned on the Scottish island of Taransay for a year starting 1 January 2000. The social experiment aimed to create a fully self-sufficient community within a year.

Fogle has since become a regular television presenter for the BBC, hosting Crufts, One Man and His Dog, Countryfile, Country Tracks, Extreme Dreams With Ben Fogle, Animal Park, Wild on the West Coast, Wild in Africa, and "Ben Fogle's Escape in Time". He made a film about the facial deforming disease Noma for a BBC 2 documentary "Make Me A New Face" which followed the work of the charity Facing Africa and Great Ormond Street Hospital. He has made films about naval History and the Royal National Lifeboat Institute (RNLI) for the History Channel and followed Princes William and Harry on their first joint Royal Tour in Botswana and made an exclusive documentary called Prince William's Africa. He marked the centenary of Captain Scott's expedition to the South Pole with The Secrets of Scott's Hut. He is popular on the motivational and corporate speaking circuit. His new series Swimming with Crocodiles will be on BBC2 and Storm City in 3D in Sky One and National Geographic. Fogle has recently become a special correspondent for NBC News in the United States.

Christoph Peters (born 1966) is a German author of novels and short stories. His debut novel, Stadt Land Fluss was published in 1999, and won the 'aspekte' prize for the best German literary debut. It was followed by a collection of short stories in 2001, and, in 2007, his first novel to be published in English, The Fabric of Night (Random House). Mr. Peters lives in Berlin. He received the Rheingau Literatur Preis in 2009.