(Suriname, 1936) made her writer's debut with Hoe duur was de suiker? (How Costly Was the Sugar?, 1987), the novel that made her the most famous Surinamese writer overnight and was adapted for film in 2013. She was the first to describe the history, the slaving past and the colonization of her country from a Surinamese perspective. As an expert in the field, she lectures about the history of slavery at US and Canadian universities and organizes educational field and city trips. She has written historic novels, including De Vrije Negerin Elisabeth, gevangene van kleur (The Free Negress Elizabeth, Prisoner of Colour, 1992), as well as studies, children's books and children's musicals. Her No kwik in het bos (No Mercury in the Forest, 2017) is a YA novel about a ten-year-old girl and the dangers of mercury in the gold-mining process. McLeod is a daughter of Johan Ferrier, the first president of Suriname.

(Netherlands) is Dutch-American. After her studies at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam, she lived for several years in New York.  She worked for magazines and started creating children's books. In 1998 she won the Kiekebook Prize for Potje!, which also apeared in translation. In the meantime she has produced about 50 picture books and is best known for her 12-part Princess Arabella series, now also a puppet series, an app and a play. It helps fill a much needed niche: picture books with more diversity. Freeman also leads workships, gives readings and appears in musical performances. She is the chair of Stichting3, which aims to stimulate diversity in children's literature via children's book festivals and reading-aloud competitions.

(Curaçao, 1951) is a poet, playwright and essayist. He published three Dutch-language poetry collections: Met lege handen ging ik slapen, met een gedicht werd ik wakker (I went to sleep with empty hands and woke up with a poem, 2002, reprint 2018), Sierlijke golven krullen van plezier (Graceful Waves Curl with Pleasure, 2009) and Een serenade  voor mijn Shéhérazade (A Serenade for My Sheherezade, 2014). In 2019 he published the essay Het sluipend gif van de islamofobie (The Creeping Venom of Islamophobia). He regularly performs with Tipiko Den Haag. In A Free Mind, Caribbean Style! he plays music of the Palm family and he will lift the veil in a poetic way from the music of his ancestors.

(Liberia, 1973) is a novelist, essayist, journalist and film critic. His debut novel Land of the Fathers (1999) is partly based on his grandmother's stories and deals with the clash between slaves returning from the US and other Liberians. The novel The Black Napoleon (2015) portrays Samori Touré, who founded the Wasulu-empire in western Africa in the 19th century. His journalism, including film reviews, appears in publications such as The New York Times, Trouw and One World. Together with  Ebissé Rouw he compiled Zwart (Black, 2018), a collection of stories by Afro-European authors from the Low Countries. Ongekende liefde (Unprecedented Love), in which he tells his life story to his ten-year-old daughter Bendu, was published in 2021. Sherif's historical novel The Emperor’s Son (2023) follows Zaiwulo, a young prodigy who trains under sage Talata of the Haidarah family in Musadu. Entangled in the intrigues of Emperor Samori, the 'Black Napoleon,' Zaiwulo matures into a formidable soldier.