Eleni Barrett is a poet who grew up in Kingston upon Thames and was first published in 2021. She has won competitions including Foyle Young Poets and the Orwell Youth Prize, and now serves on the Orwell Foundation's Board of Governance. Poetry provided a lot of support for Eleni whilst growing up, and her work frequently explores themes of isolation and hope. When she’s not writing, Eleni is usually thrifting for stuff she really doesn't need, at the theatre trying to start a standing ovation, or listening to alternative/indie rock. She launched the Seven Kings Poetry Prize to inspire other young people and to share her love for writing.

Patricia Kingori is a sociologist and Professor at the University of Oxford. In 2021, she made history as the youngest Black woman to receive a full professorship in Oxbridge's history. Patricia is the lead investigator of the global, Wellcome-funded After the End research project — a multi-country study examining what happens in the aftermath of global health crises. She was also a leading judge for the After the End poetry competition in 2025. Patricia also produced the documentary The Shadow Scholars (2024), which investigates the hidden academic ghostwriting industry. She is a Senior Research Fellow at Somerville College, Oxford.

Will Harris is a London-based writer. He is the author of the poetry books RENDANG (2020) and Brother Poem (2023), both published by Granta in the UK and Wesleyan University Press in the US, and the essay Mixed-Race Superman (Peninsula Press) which came out in 2018. He has won the Forward Prize for Best First Collection and been shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize. He co-translated Habib Tengour’s Consolatio (Poetry Translation Centre) with Delaina Haslam in 2022, and helps facilitate the Southbank New Poets Collective with Vanessa Kisuule. Siblings, a conversation between Jay Bernard, Mary Jean Chan, Will Harris and Nisha Ramayya, was published by Monitor Books in 2024.

Sue Ansari is a local politician and a cabinet member for Kingston Council. She currently serves as the Portfolio Holder for Children’s Services and Education, overseeing crucial youth support networks, schools and educational infrastructure across the borough. In the past, she served as Deputy Mayor and she worked as an English teacher before entering politics. Through her dual roles in public policy and direct education, she has spent years championing the creative and intellectual potential of young people.