Graduate of the Faculty of Graphic Arts, Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. She draws and writes books for children and adults. In 2016 she was nominated for the prestigious Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. Ola Cieślak! That's a really smart girl, smart as a waterfall! (Grażka Lange)

Klára Zahrádková studied illustration and graphics at Prague's UMPRUM with Juraj Horváth, interned with Kryštof Kintera and at Berlin's UDK under Henning Wagenbreth. She has authored books such as Návody k použití (Instructions for Use), Kůže kožešina trofej lasička fretka kuna otazník (Skin Fur Trophy Weasel Ferret Marten Question Mark, a photo collection from aukro.cz), Z oceli a větru (Of Steel and Wind), Gewalttätige Rezepte ohne Blut (Recipes of Bloodless Violence), Aroma souznění (Harmony’s Aroma), and Jaro (Spring). She focuses on illustration and graphic design through onkubator.com, and collaborates with the Czech experimental music scene. Living and working in Prague and Leipzig, she co-runs the XaoXax gallery and bookstore with Alžběta Zemanová, Zuzana Bramborová, and Jakub Plachý.

Marek Toman (born in 1967) is a writer and journalist known for his historical novels children's books. In Chvála oportunismu (In Praise of Opportunism, 2016), he explores Czech history from the perspective of the Černín Palace in Prague, focusing on figures such as J. Masaryk and R. Heydrich. Neptunova jeskyně (Neptune's Cave, 2018) captures the layered history of Prague's Czech-Jewish-German Vinohrady district and Grébovka villa through the eyes of the Neptune statue. Oko žraloka (The Eye of the Shark, 2018) delves into the stories of Czech International Brigaders, leftists, and tramps from the viewpoint of J. Klecan, the anti-hero from Fučík's Reportáž psaná na oprátce (Report From the End of the Noose). This novel led to the publication of newly discovered letters by Klecan in Zrádce, hrdina, spisovatel? (Traitor, Hero, or Writer?, 2021). In Panna (The Virgin, 2022), Toman tells a story from Příbram about a man who spent decades in hiding set against the backdrop of the communist effort to build a new society in Příbram.
His children's book Cukrárna U Šilhavého Jima (Cross-Eyed Jim’s Confectionary, 2018) is about a brave librarian promoting the beauty of literature among backwoodsmen. Neskutečná dobrodružství Florentina Flowerse (The Incredible Adventures of Florentin Flowers, 2019) depicts a boy from a good family who must rewrite the ship's log for the cruelest pirate captain around. The trilogy promoting reading and literacy concludes with "Nožička and Wohryzek" (2022), where a young Czech-American seeks his kidnapped father with the help of K. Čapek, F. Kafka, and J. Hašek.
Toman also wrote the script for the comic "Odsunuté děti" (Displaced Children, 2021) depicting the stories of Sudeten Germans' displaced children. He regularly appears in libraries, schools, and festivals in the Czech Republic and abroad, including performances with his Theatre Čučka. His books for adults and children have received multiple literary awards and have been translated into ten languages.

Vojtěch Mašek, a librettist, screenwriter, artist, composer, and lyricist born in 1977, graduated in screenwriting from the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU). He made his directorial and screenwriting debut with the absurdist story of an exhibitionist called Tomík and his parents, which was featured in the anthology film Šest statečných (1999). He’s also contributed to several short student films. He and his classmate Džian Baban created, among other things, the comic trilogy Monstrkabaret Freda Brunolda uvádí (2004 to 2008) and a series of theater performances titled Jožkalipnikjebožíčlověkaneumílhát!, which were performed at Studio Hrdinů. Vojtěch Mašek introduced the concept of Recykliteratura, which involves combining photographs and texts found in books and magazines to create mainly short anecdotes, often absurd in nature, which sometimes form a cohesive story. This concept gained a lot of popularity on Facebook. In collaboration with director Václav Kadrnka and dramaturg Jiří Soukup, Vojtěch Mašek wrote the screenplay for the historical drama Křižáček (2017). The film, inspired by the epic poem by Jaroslav Vrchlický, is set in the high Middle Ages and received nine Czech Lion nominations, including for the screenplay.

Krištof Kintera, son of Libuše Kinterová (née Pekárková) and graphic designer Vladimír Kintera, is a distinguished figure in the art community. His sister, Markéta Kinterová, is a visual artist, photographer, and author. Krištof's education at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague was guided by Jiří Lindovský, Aleš Veselý, Michael Bielický, and Milan Knížák from 1992 to 1999, with further studies at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam from 2003 to 2004. Exhibiting solo since the mid-1990s, he has received three nominations for the Jindřich Chalupecký Award. Previously represented by Gallery Jiří Švestka, he was a key member of the theatrical-performative group Jednotka in the 1990s. In 1999, he was among the founders of Univerzální prostor NoD (now Experimentální prostor NoD) located above the ROXY music club, where he became the gallery's first curator. He regularly collaborates on the visual concepts and exhibitions of the 4+4 Days in Motion theater festival in Prague. He was the creative mind behind the visual concept for the 2006 One World documentary film festival. He also contributed to the controversial sculptural installation Entropa created by David Černý in 2009 for the Justus Lipsius building atrium in Brussels during the Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union. Together with his life partner, Denisa Václavová, a cultural organizer and dramaturge of the 4+4 Days in Motion festival, they managed the ProLuka Gallery's art installation program in an undeveloped space in Prague's Vršovice from 2012 to 2017. Between 2009 and 2011, he led the sculpture studio at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague. In 2007, he curated the collective exhibition Hrubý domácí produkt (Gross Domestic Product) in the exhibition space of the Prague City Gallery at the Municipal Library in Prague, where he also had one of his largest solo exhibitions, Results of Analysis, in 2012. Another significant Czech exhibition, Nervous Trees, took place five years later at the Galerie Rudolfinum in Prague. The 2010s brought opportunities for solo exhibitions at major international venues including the Museum Tinguely in Basel (2014), Kunstal Rotterdam (2015), and Kunsthalle Bratislava (2016). Krištof Kintera lives in Prague.

Jakub Čermák is a songwriter, poet, and director. He is the author of the books Resumé 17, Padavčata (Fallen Apples), Stroboskopy (Stroboscopes), Do vesmíru! (Up To Outer Space) and Středohoří. Under the moniker Cermaque, he has released 9 studio albums: Krajiny bez rytíře, Dům slzí, Přítel holubů, Divozemí, Démon v Paříži, Rodinné album, Gravitace, Neboj, and Teorie dospělosti.

Photo: Tomáš Vodňanský

Zuzana Demlová works across the fields of community, art, and education. She leads the "Jihlava Educates through Culture" project for the city government of Jihlava, as part of the strategy for culture and tourism. Since 2018, she has coordinated the "School Dances" project for the SE.S.TA Centre for Choreographic Development. She is a co-founder of the KVAS association, where she leads projects focused on public space (the experiential Urban Game in Jihlava and Prague 14), contributes to the creation of concepts, methodologies, and teaches in educational projects (the media workshop Hatefree – School for Everyone / Media Creatively for the Aisis association / Using Digital Photography in Art Education for teachers in cooperation with the National Gallery Prague / IntegrArt and Art for Social Change – Play Against Violence in cooperation with Media Artes Ohrid, Macedonia). Her book Pohádky o kolečkách a nekonečnu (Tales of Circles and Infinity) was awarded in the Golden Ribbon 2019 competition in the non-fiction literature for children category. She is a graduate of the multimedia field at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Brno University of Technology. She has completed internships at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cluj, Romania, and the Academy of Fine Arts, multimedia studio, Milan, Italy.

Jakub Plachý studied at the Studio of Illustration and Graphics at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague. He is the author of educational author's books including Velká kniha čůrání (The Big Book of Peeing), Hakenkreuz in Ordinary Life, and Jak žijí dnes (How They Live Today), among others. His focus is on illustration, sign painting (Chyba & syn), and graphic design. He plays the drums and is one of the innovators behind the Xao gallery and bookstore. His latest publications include a book for young readers "Je Ráno" and a risograph-printed book for caffeine enthusiasts "Barista."

Stanislav Setinský is a graduate of the illustration and graphics studio at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague. He has created a series of graphic sheets titled Apokalypsa aneb Nowiny strašliwé o konci swěta (Apocalypse or Terrifying News From the End of the World) and has illustrated books for Etgar Keret. Setinský is involved in comics, illustration, and plays in the punk band Kočkolit. His latest authorial book, To je Jeruzalém (This is Jerusalem), is a rich pictorial dictionary created both on-site and in a cottage in a garden colony in Veleslavín.

Drahoslava Janderová is a translator of French and Italian, and an indispensable editor to our publishing house. From the beginning, she has edited both large and small texts and translations, and translates some of the major adventure texts for our BigBao series. After graduating in 1964 from the Secondary School of Economics for Foreign Trade in Prague, she studied interpreting and translation at the University of 17th November in Prague. During a year-long stay in France (1968–69), she attended the Institut des professeurs du français à l'étranger at the Sorbonne in Paris. From 1969 to 1989, she was engaged in freelance translation, collaborating mainly with the World Literature review and DILIA agency (where she largely translated plays), and published numerous afterwords, articles, and studies on Italian and French literature. From the latter half of the 1970s, she contributed to the publishing of samizdat literature. She worked in the editorial office of Literární Noviny from 1990–95, and was an editor at the Academia publishing house in Prague from 1996–2005.  She is renowned large for her translations of French artistic prose from the 19th and 20th centuries and the works of Italian novelist P. Levi. Additionally, she translates and edits art-related publications in both languages. In the 1980s, some works attributed to her were actually translated by her late husband, Sergej Machonin, a noted theater and literary critic, writer, and translator. More recently, Drahoslava has shifted her focus to translating literature for children and young adults. Her expertise was recognized in 2007 when she received the prestigious Golden Ribbon award for for her translation of Tobie Lolness – Life in the Branches by French author Timothée de Fombelle.

Born in Tábor, where she still resides today, Barbora Müllerová graduated in Portuguese Studies from the Faculty of Arts at Charles University. During her studies, she spent a year in Porto, Portugal. After completing her education, she worked for several years at the Portuguese Embassy before transitioning to become a freelance Portuguese translator. Among her notable translations is Uvnitř – Průvodce hlubinami mozku (Inside - A Guide to the Depths of the Brain) for Baobab. Additionally, she actively contributes to the Septem Artes community university, furthering her engagement in educational and cultural initiatives.

Nikola Logosová graduated in illustration from the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague (UMPRUM). She enjoys working with various materials and techniques, exploring new artistic expressions. Her work encompasses both everyday themes and dreamlike motifs. She is a member of the audio-visual duo GAUNER.

Markéta Pilátová is a Czech writer, Hispanist, and journalist. She graduated in Romance Studies and History from the Faculty of Arts at Palacký University in Olomouc. After her studies, she worked there for six years as a research assistant. From 2007 to 2008, she was the head of the foreign editorial office at the weekly magazine Respekt. She then traveled to Argentina and Brazil, spending five years in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul, São Paulo, and Buenos Aires. There, she taught descendants of Czech expatriates who had emigrated from Czechoslovakia to Brazil and Argentina. Her essays, foreign policy articles, reports, reviews, short stories, and author columns are published in various Czech media outlets (such as Respekt, Lidové noviny, and the cultural supplement of Právo Salon). She also writes short stories for the radio station Vltava and song lyrics for singer Monika Načeva. Currently, she works in the cultural department of the Cervantes Institute. She is married and lives in Prague and Velké Losiny.

Hana Zahradníčková graduated in Romance Studies from the Faculty of Arts at Charles University. She has worked as an editor for the weekly magazine Respekt, ERM publishing, and Lidové noviny newspaper. She has translated works by Nicolas Bouvier, Henri Michaux, Alphonse Allais, and a number of comics including Ibicus by Pascal Rabaté, Blue Pills: A Positive Love Story by Frederic Peeters, Pascin by Joan Sfar, Marzi: A Memoir by Sylvain Savoia and Marzena Sowa, Back to Basics (Jean Ferri a Manu Larcenet), Super Monsieur Fruit (Nicolas de Crécy), and others. For Baobab publishing, she translated two comics by David B., The Armed Garden and Other Stories, and The Littlest Pirate, as well as the children's detective story Jefferson by Jean-Claude Mourlevat.