Qurrat-ul-Ain Haider (Urdu: قرۃ العین حیدر; January 20, 1928 – August 21, 2007) was an influential Urdu novelist and short story writer, an academic, and a journalist. One of the most outstanding literary names in Urdu literature, she is most known for her magnum opus, Aag Ka Darya (River of Fire), a novel first published in Urdu in 1959, from Lahore, Pakistan, that stretches from the 4th century BC to post partition of India. Popularly known as "Ainee Apa" among her friends and admirers, she was the daughter of writer and pioneers of Urdu short story writing Sajjad Haidar Yildarim (1880–1943). Her mother, Nazar Zahra, who wrote at first as Bint-i-Nazrul Baqar and later as Nazar Sajjad Hyder (1894–1967), was also a novelist and protegee of Muhammadi Begam and her husband Syed Mumtaz Ali, who published her first novel.

She received the 1967 Sahitya Akademi Award in Urdu for Patjhar Ki Awaz (Short stories), 1989 Jnanpith Award for Akhire Shab Ke Humsafar, and the highest award of the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship in 1994. She also received the Padma Bhushan from the Government of India in 2005.

Tarannum Riyaz is a noted Urdu short fiction writer, translator, critic, poet and novelist, born, brought up and educated in Srinagar, Kashmir. She has worked on television and radio for several years as an Urdu news broadcaster, translator and organiser of literary and cultural programmes. She has also edited the women’s sections of leading Urdu newspapers and journals in Kashmir. She holds the degrees of Masters in Urdu and Masters in Education (M.Ed) from the University of Kashmir. Riyaz has written more than 12 books of fiction, criticism, poetry and some translations

Riyaz has been the recipient of the Delhi Urdu Academy Fiction Award three times. She has also received the Uttar Pradesh Urdu Academy Fiction Award and the Sahir Ludhyanvi Adeeb International Award for her contribution in poetry and prose, the Rasa Javedani Memorial Award and Jammu and the Kashmir Academy for Art, Culture and Languages for the Best Book Award 2008 for her substantial contribution towards Urdu literature. Her works have been included in several noteworthy anthologies including one edited by Prof. Gopi Chand Narang and another edited by Prof. Sadiq and published by Penguin. Her work has been translated into several Indian and foreign languages. Her edited work, 20th Century Urdu Literature of Women published by Sahitya Akademi was widely acclaimed.