Qais Akbar Omar was born in 1982. He is a gifted linguist who trained as a journalist and as a translator for the US military and the UN. A Fort of Nine Towers, which will be published by Picador in June 2013, was written in English and will be translated all over the world. 

He's chosen some fantastic books as his favourites, but his answer to the question, 'What gives you nightmares?' casts everything else into the shadows.

Megan Abbott's new novel Dare Me portrays the world of cheerleading as something much darker than you might expect. Here, she picks her favourite books, albums and films.

Sarah Rayner is the bestselling author of One Moment, One Morning, which has been translated into eleven languages. She worked for twenty years as an advertising copywriter and now writes fiction full time. Here, she talks about her childhood in books, among other things.

THE COMING GOD 

after Nonnus 

Horned child, double-born into risk, guarded

by satyrs, centaurs, raised

by the nymphs of Nysa, by the Hyades:

here he was, the toddler, Dionysus.

He cried ‘Daddy!’ stretching up to the sky, and he was right

and clever, because the sky was Zeus

his father, reaching down. 

Rowan Moore, author of Why We Build, talks about his favourite books, bloggers and sporting moments, past and present.