– Howard Cunnell, an author whose most recent book Fathers & Sons (Picador) is a critically acclaimed memoir of both growing up with an absent father and then as a father himself, having a daughter who is becoming a son.

– Kalwinder Singh Dhindsa, a British-Punjabi author, whose debut book is a memoir called My Father & The Lost Legend of Pear Tree. Born to Punjabi parents in Derby in 1979, Kal was raised as a Sikh. For the first 28 years of his life he lived in the Pear Tree area of Normanton in Derby.

– Scott Graham, Artistic Director of Frantic Assembly who created Fatherland, an acclaimed play exploring the complexities of contemporary fatherhood, commissioned and produced by Manchester International Festival, Frantic Assembly, the Royal Exchange Theatre, Lyric Hammersmith and LIFT.

– Karl Hyde, musician, artist, founding member of Underworld and co-creator of Fatherland.

– Yomi Sode, poet, father and former social worker. Over the past nine years, he’s had work commissioned by The Mayor’s Office, BBC World Service/Africa, Channel 4, charities and for the UN Humanitarian Summit. He also created Daddy Diaries, an online forum for fathers.

Chaired by actor and writer Ben Norris. In 2013 Ben became the UK All-Star Poetry Slam Champion and has since performed his spoken-word across the country, from Latitude Festival to the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall. His work has been broadcast across BBC radio, his first poetry pamphlet was published in 2014 and his debut solo show, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Family, won the 2015 IdeasTap Underbelly Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival before touring the UK extensively in autumn 2016, finishing with a sell-out run at Southbank Centre.