Judith Arundell Wright was born on 31 May 1915 at Sydney, New South Wales. She studied at the University of Sydney. Wright settled in Brisbane, Queensland, and worked as a statistician at the University of Queensland (UQ) from 1944 to 1948, where she helped Clem Christesen to edit Meanjin. She wrote the first of her poems while working at UQ. Wright met Jack McKinney during her time in Brisbane, and together they moved to Mount Tamborine. They had a daughter, Meredith, in 1950 and married in 1962. Jack died in 1966. Wright was one of Australia's foremost poets, and writers of short stories and children's book. She helped form the Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland and was a supporter of the Aboriginal land rights movement. She was a patron of many organisations, including the Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland, National Forests Action Council (Victoria), Campaign Against Nuclear Power (Queensland), Townsville Women's Shelter and Amnesty International (Victoria). In 1991 she was awarded the Queen's gold medal for poetry. Judith Wright died in Canberra on 26 June 2000.

Emeritus Professor Warwick Gould is a scholar of English and Irish Literature and the history of the book. He was a Professor of English Literature at Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, University of London until 2013 and was the Founder Director of the Institute of English Studies within the School of Advanced Study at the University of London. He has published regularly on Yeats.

John ('Jack') Lindsay was born on 20 October 1900 in East Melbourne. Son of Victorian-born Norman Lindsay and his first wife Kathleen Agatha, née Parkinson. After his parents separated in 1909 his mother took him and his brothers Raymond and Philip to Brisbane. During this time he spent much time in the Elkington household. He earned scholarships to Brisbane Grammar School and University of Queensland (BA Hon, 1921). He was an autobiographer/memoirist, biographer, book publisher, communist, historian, literary critic and novelist. He died on 8 March 1990 in Cambridge, England.