Brazilian novelist, critic, and diplomat João Almino is the author of three volumes of essays and five of philosophy, in addition to the five novels of his Brasilia Quintet, of which Dalkey has published the last two, The Book of Emotions and Free City. He has taught at Berkeley, Stanford, the National Autonomous University of Mexico, the University of Brasilia, and the University of Chicago. Among other awards, Almino won the 2003 Casa de las Américas Award for The Five Seasons of Love and the 2011 Prêmio Passo Fundo Zaffari and Bourbon de Literatura for Free City. In 2017, he was elected to the Brazilian Academy of Letters. The Last Twist of the Knife is his seventh novel.
Liz taught mathematics for sixteen years across the UK from the Channel Islands to the North West of England in various primary and secondary schools. For the last fourteen years she has been a Senior Lecturer at the University of Cumbria (formerly St Martin s College) teaching mathematics at degree level, mathematics education with secondary and primary student teachers and supervising Masters students research into primary mathematics. Her Honours degree from Manchester University is in mathematics and education. She explored the use of IT as a tool for learning and teaching mathematics for a Masters from the University of Lancaster, and conducted research into mathematical perceptions for her PhD, also from the University of Lancaster. Liz has always taken a keen interest in how children learn mathematics and how adults, including teachers, perceive mathematics.