Dr. Javaid Iqbal Bhat is an academic, writer and a cultural critic. He teaches at the Post Graduate Department of English, South Campus, University of Kashmir. Bhat has done his PhD from Ohio University, USA. He is the author of books Mourning Memories: From Amarnath Row to the Year of Dead Eyes (2017), Scars of Summer (2017), Covering a Decade (2007-2017): Reflections on the Kashmir Cauldron and Global Affairs (2019) and Calm before the Storm (2021). He has co-edited A Desolation called Peace (Harper Collins). He has published papers in, among others, journals like Third Text and Folklore. He writes columns for the newspapers Greater Kashmir, Daily Times (Lahore).
Rattan Lal Shaant was born in Srinagar in 1938. He did BA from University of Kashmir and MA and DPhil from Allahabad University. From 1959 to 1996 he taught Hindi and Kashmiri languages and literature in different colleges of Kashmir and for a short time in University of Kashmir.