Jose Ando was born and raised in Tokyo, and is of African-Asian heritage. His debut novel Jackson Alone was awarded the 59th Bungei Prize. It was also shortlisted for the Akutagawa Prize, as was his second novel, The Camouflaged Man. His third novel, Dtopia, won the 172nd Akutagawa Prize, solidifying his presence as one of Japan's brightest young literary stars.

Kalau Almony is a Japanese-English literary translator based in Kawasaki, Japan. His translations include the work of Fuminori Nakamura, Tahi Saihate, and Shinya Tanaka, and he is a 2025 National Endowment for the Arts translation fellow. Born and raised in Kailua, Hawaiʻi, Kalau completed his BA in Comparative Literature at Brown University and MA in East Asian Languages and Literatures at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.