THE TRANTRAAL BROTHERS, André and Nathan, are a sibling-illustrator duo who grew up in the Cape Town township of Mitchells Plain before moving to Bishop Lavis. They have published numerous cartoons and graphic works including Coloureds (2010) and Crossroads (2014–2020, written by Koni Benson). Independently, André has written and illustrated the children’s book series, Keegan and Samier. Nathan has published three poetry collections in Kaaps—earning him numerous awards including the 2013 Ingrid Jonker Prize and the 2020 SALA Poetry Award—as well as a collection of his columns as published in the Afrikaans newspaper, Rapport. The Trantraal Brothers illustrated Chapter 2, ‘In the Shadow of a High Stone Wall’.

Anthony Silverston is partner and Head of Development at Triggerfish Animation Studios in South Africa where he is currently overseeing a slate of projects in development and production.  These include Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire, an anthology of 10 short films in production with Disney+, Mama K’s Team 4  with Netflix, and Kiya with Disney, eOne and Frogbox, as well as a number of feature films and TV series in development with various partners. In 2015, he oversaw the Story Lab, an initiative where 4 feature films and 4 TV series were chosen to be developed after a continent-wide search that drew almost 1400 entries. He also directed and co-wrote the feature film Khumba, which premiered in competition at Annecy International Animation Festival in 2013. The script, co-written with Raffaella Delle Donne, won a major UK scriptwriting competition in 2006 and was the first animation selected for No Borders Co-Production Market in its 30-year history. He has produced and written on Seal Team (released globally in December 2021 on Netflix), as well as Triggerfish’s first feature Zambezia.  Silverston was also producer of the short film Belly Flop which screened at over 135 festivals and won 14 awards, and the Blender short film, Troll Girl. Before joining Triggerfish, he completed three independent stop-motion shorts of his own.  He is also a published Microbiologist, which is a fact that has become increasingly less useful over the years.

Baruti Kandolo Lilela, better known by his pen name Barly Baruti, is a renowned Congolese cartoonist. He was born in 1959 in Kisangani into a family of painters. After studying pedagogy, Baruti worked at French cultural centers in Kisangani and Kinshasa, where he produced his first comic work, an environmental comic titled Le temps d’agir. He has been described by the BBC as "the Congolese author best known outside his country.” Baruti is the co-founder of the Atelier de Création et de l'Initiation à l'Art (Creative Workshop for an Initiation to Art) to encourage talented youth in Kinshasa. He has lived in France and Belgium, where he apprenticed with several renowned comic artists. He currently lives in Kinshasa. In 2023, Barly was named Facilitator of Partnerships and Cultural Relations in Europe by the Congolese Ministry of Culture.

DADA KHANYISA is an Umzimkhulu-born, Johannesburg-raised, Cape Town-based multi-disciplinary artist whose work explores the intersection of technology and contemporary social culture with respect to the Black experience. In 2016, they (Dada’s preferred pronoun) were awarded the Simon Gerson Prize, and a year later, completed a commission for a 35-metre mural on Constitution Hill in Johannesburg. In 2018, the Stevenson Gallery in Cape Town presented Dada’s first solo exhibition, Bamb’iphone, followed up two years later by the Johannesburg show, Good Feelings. Dada illustrated Chapter 4, ‘The Widow of Marabastad’.

Daniel Snaddon is an artist, illustrator, and film director of Scottish-South African and Chinese-Australian descent, who grew up in Nelspruit, a short drive away from the Kruger National Park. He has worked in the animation and film industries for fourteen years, best known for his work with Triggerfish Animation Studios and with Magic Light Pictures' animated BBC Christmas specials. Among these, Daniel served as animation supervisor on the Academy Award nominated "Roald Dahl's Revolting Rhymes", co-director on the BAFTA nominated "Stick Man", and as director on both the Annie award winning "The Snail and the Whale" and the International Emmy winning "Zog". Daniel's most recent work, his fourth Magic Light Pictures Christmas special, "The Smeds and the Smoos", based on the book by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler (authors of The Gruffalo), was awarded the Audience Award at the New York International Children's Film Festival in March 2023. Daniel served as the founding director of CTIAF, South Africa’s premiere animation festival, for 4 years.

Creator: James Clarke was born in Cape Town, South Africa, and educated at the University of Cape Town, where he studied history and literature and completed his Masters in Creative Writing as a Harry Crossley Fellow. In 2016, he was the South Africa finalist in fiction for the PEN International New Young Voices Award. Kariba is his first graphic novel collaboration.

Karen Vermeulen is an artist, illustrator and teacher living in Cape Town, South Africa, known for her happy, uplifting and quirky creations. She is the illustrator of two Catalyst Press children’s books, It's Just Skin, Silly! (2023) and Wanjiku, Child of Mine (2024), middle grade books Small Mercies (2020) and The Cedarville Shop and the Wheelbarrow Swap (2022) as well as many Catalyst Press book covers.

Karen Vermeulen is an artist, illustrator and teacher living in Cape Town, South Africa, known for her happy, uplifting and quirky creations. She is the illustrator of two Catalyst Press children’s books, It's Just Skin, Silly! (2023) and Wanjiku, Child of Mine (2024), middle grade books Small Mercies (2020) and The Cedarville Shop and the Wheelbarrow Swap (2022) as well as many Catalyst Press book covers.

Leo Daly is the son of iconic South African Illustrator and writer Niki Daly.  He lives with his wife Magriet Brink in a tiny house by the sea on the southern tip of Africa.  You can follow Leo and Magriet @we_are_creativehouse on Instagram.

Lisa Maria Burgess hand-stitches textile art to illustrate her bilingual books for children. While her first language is English, she speaks Spanish and French with fluency, and enjoys learning the basics of any language she has the pleasure of meeting. Lisa currently divides her time between the United States and Bénin, grew up in México, and has lived around the world as a United Nations spouse. She holds a doctorate in English from the University of Pennsylvania, and is a wife and mother.

LIZ CLARKE lives in Cape Town, where she works as an illustrator. She has contributed to the genre of graphic history internationally, and her work is featured in seven books published by Oxford University Press USA—including Witness to the Age of Revolution (written by Charles F. Walker), which won the Association of American Publishers PROSE Award for Nonfiction Graphic Novels, and Abina and the Important Men (written by Trevor R. Getz), which won the American Historical Association’s James Harvey Robinson Prize. Liz illustrated Chapter 3, ‘Come Gallows Grim’.

Luke Molver, author and illustrator: Luke Molver has always known that his life would be fuelled by storytelling. He studied Fine Art and Graphic Design at the Durban University of Technology and works as a freelance illustrator and comic book creator in Cape Town, South Africa. He has produced a number of comic books and his work has been published in a variety of graphic anthologies including the Laugh It Off annual, Velocity, Mamba Comix and GrafLit: Graveyard Literature.

M.C. Kasper was born and mostly raised in Maryland. From her younger years living on a farm, to her college years working in the Museum of Natural History at Frostburg State University, she has immersed herself in the lives of animals. Writing is amongst M.C.’s many creative interests, including photography, painting, and baking. She holds a Bachelor’s in English, and now lives in Severn, Maryland with her husband and daughter.

MARK MODIMOLA was born in Pretoria of Sotho-Tsonga parentage. Originally a graphic designer, he studied at the University of Pretoria and later pursued a Fulbright Scholarship in the United States before returning to South Africa determined to illustrate full-time. Mark is a prolific and versatile creator, with a portfolio that explores African identity and spirituality, often through the cultural aesthetic of Afrofuturism. He illustrated Chapter 6, ‘Here I Cross to the Other Side’, honouring and drawing inspiration from his Sotho migrant ancestry. Cape Town and Cambridge, he worked for South African civil-society organizations Equal Education, The Bookery, and Ndifuna Ukwazi, the London publisher Slightly Foxed, and the edtech organization MakeTomorrow. In 2016, Richard collaborated with the Trantraal Brothers to create Safety, Justice and People’s Power, an illustrated companion to the O’Regan-Pikoli Commission of Inquiry into policing in Khayelitsha.

THE TRANTRAAL BROTHERS, André and Nathan, are a sibling-illustrator duo who grew up in the Cape Town township of Mitchells Plain before moving to Bishop Lavis. They have published numerous cartoons and graphic works including Coloureds (2010) and Crossroads (2014–2020, written by Koni Benson). Independently, André has written and illustrated the children’s book series, Keegan and Samier. Nathan has published three poetry collections in Kaaps—earning him numerous awards including the 2013 Ingrid Jonker Prize and the 2020 SALA Poetry Award—as well as a collection of his columns as published in the Afrikaans newspaper, Rapport. The Trantraal Brothers illustrated Chapter 2, ‘In the Shadow of a High Stone Wall’.

Niki Daly has won many awards for his work. His groundbreaking Not So Fast Songololo, winner of a US Parent’s Choice Award, paved the way for post-apartheid South African children’s books. Among his many books, Once Upon a Time was an Honor Winner in the US Children’s Africana Book Awards and Jamela’s Dress was chosen by the ALA as a Notable Children’s Book and by Booklist as one of the Top 10 African American Picture Books of 2000 - it also won both the Children’s Literature Choice Award and the Parents' Choice Silver Award. Niki lives with his wife, the author and illustrator Jude Daly, in South Africa.

Pieter de Poortere is reeds vir meer as twintig jaar die illustreerder-skrywer van die veelbekroonde Boerke-strokiesprente. Hy is gebore en woon in Gent, België. Sy werk is in verskeie tale in tydskrifte, koerante en boeke gepubliseer, en is te sien in die Belgiese Stripsentrum, ’n museum vir strokiesprente in Brussel. Pieter se aweregse karakter het ook sy eie reeks op Vlaamse televisie, op Prime en op die stasie Adult Swim in Frankryk gehad.

Raffaella Delle Donne has over fifteen years of experience in the animation industry developing and creating content for Disney, eOne, Wekids, Snipple Animation, Netflix, Baobab Studios and Triggerfish Animation Studios. She was the TV Development Executive for the Triggerfish Studios/Disney Storylab that incubated Mama K's Team 4 and co-wrote the award-winning features Adventures in Zambezia and Khumba. Raffaella is currently a writer and Executive Creative Consultant on Kiya and the Kimoja Heroes, a new preschool show slated for release on Disney.

SAAID RAHBEENI lives in Maitland, Cape Town. A freelance illustrator with decades of experience, he previously worked for the Educational Support Services Trust, Jincom, Strika Entertainment, and MTE Studios. His drawings appear in a range of school textbooks published by Pearson, Pan Macmillan, and Oxford University Press, among others, and he has also contributed to the Our Story series by South African Heritage Publishers. Saaid illustrated Chapter 1, ‘Until the Ship Sails’.

TUMI MAMABOLO hails from Polokwane in Limpopo province. He can’t remember a time when he wasn’t avidly drawing and painting, usually a comic or graphic novel from his own imagination. Since graduating with a degree in Information Design from the University of Pretoria in 2020, he has already won two Gold Loerie awards for his animation work. Still in his early twenties, Tumi is the youngest of the All Rise contributors, having illustrated Chapter 5, ‘A House Divided’.

Willem Samuel is a visual artist working in animation and comic books. His autobiographical novel, Mengelmoes, was published in the UK by Soaring Penguin Press in 2016 to critical acclaim. His comic work has featured in zines internationally, including the cult series Bitterkomix and in cyberspace via the award-winning online anthology Aces Weekly, brainchild of David Lloyd (V for Vendetta). Previously, Willem Art Directed the pan-African comic Supa Strikas, which was adapted into an animated series. More recently he served as Head of Story on the animated feature Seal Team as well as creating concept art for the Warhammer+ streaming series, Hammer & Bolter.