Vincent O'Sullivan was Professor of English at Victoria University, Wellington, from 1988 until his retirement in 2003, and for his last four years was also Director of the Stout Research Centre. As well as being an academic, he has worked as a journalist, and published widely as a poet, novelist, short story writer, biographer, and playwright.
Margaret Scott was Manuscripts Librarian at the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington, where she discovered a talent for penetrating the almost illegible handwriting of Katharine Mansfield manuscripts. As well as transcribing The Collected Letters, she produced a two-volume edition of The Katharine Mansfield Notebooks. She is currently working on an edition of the diaries of the New Zealand poet, Charles Brasch.