(Morocco) received his B.A. from the Faculty of Law at Mohamed V University in Rabat, his M.A. in Political Science from the University of West Florida, and his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Michigan. He has been teaching political science and international relations at university in Rabat since 1978. He has been a Fulbright scholar at the School for International Training and Marlboro College in Vermont, lectured widely around the world, and published a number of professional articles in his fields. He published two novels in Arabic. One in 1996 and a second in 2003 - The Farewell Sermon - which won the Moroccan Book Award. Abdelhay Moudden is a former member of the Moroccan Truth and Reconciliation Commission and is currently a member of the Consultative Council for Human Rights. He is married and has one daughter.

(Worcester, South-Africa, 1953) is a writer, poet and activist for marginalised African women. She works at the University of West Cape, where she also participates in a Women's Studies course. Ferrus is a member of WEAVE (Women’s Education & Artistic Voice Expression), an artist's collective in Capetown. She became well known with her poem Tribute to Sarah Baartman. The poem was translated and included in the French governmental documents that were necessary for the transportation of the remains of Sarah Baartman - in nineteen century Europe known as the Hottentot Venus. The remains left Paris and eventually arrived in South Africa in 2002 where they were buried. Ferrus published her first collection of poetry in the Afrikaans language called 'Ons Komvandaan' ('We come from') in 2006 and was the co-editor for a book about fathers and daughters called, Slaan vir my 'n masker, Vader (Forge Me a Mask, Father). She recently released a cd of poetry with music by the band Mamela, called "Never again", "Nooit weer nie".

(Emmen, NL, 1964) studied tropical agricultural engineering and was a correspondent for the Volkskrant and NRC Handelsblad newspapers in Belgrade and Moskow. He wrote about his time there in 1994's De Brug over de Tara (The Bridge over the River Tara). Together with journalist Bart Rijs he wrote 1997's  Srebrenica, Het zwartste scenario (Srebrenica, the Blackest Scenario). Ingenieurs van de ziel (Engineers of the Soul) was published in 2002, an inquiry into the foundations of the Soviet system and the role of writers. De Graanrepubliek (The Grain Republic), about the struggle between rich gentlemen farmers and communist workers in Groningen, was published earlier. Westerman's novel El Negro en ik (El Negro and Me), inspired by a preserved South African in a Spanish museum, was published in 2004 and won the Gouden Uil prize. His revised and augmented 2015 edition of De Slag om Srebrenica (The Battle for Srebrenica) won the Prinsjes Book Prize for best political book. Een woord een woord (One Word One Word) appeared in 2016, in which he tests the strength of free speech under the pressure of terrorist threats. As a child, he experienced the Molukkan train hijacking at close quarters; as a correspondent, he witnessed Chechen terror in Russia. Drawing on these gripping experiences, he describes a series of hostage dramas. In Zeven dieren bijten terug (Seven Animals Bite Back), Frank Westerman encounters seven magnificent creatures in the wake of Willem Barentsz. Along the way, the reader becomes captivated by the wondrous tale of seven polar animals and what they have to tell us at our latitude.

(Aruba, 1959) Lasana M. Sekou is the author of 13 books of poetry, short stories, monologues and essays. Born Harold Hermano Lake in Aruba in 1959, he grew up in Sint Maarten. Sekou studied political science and mass communication in the USA, where he changed his name to Lasana (poet) Sekou (warrior). His books, such as The Salt Reaper and Nativity, have been required reading at Caribbean and North American universities. He is the editor of National Symbols of St. Martin and The Independence Papers – Readings on a New Political Status for St. Maarten/St. Martin. He also produced Fête – The first recording of traditional St. Martin festive music. Sekou lectures on history, culture, politics and literature at schools, universities and festivals throughout the world. His poetry has appeared in journals such as The Massachusetts Review, Del Caribe, De Gids, and Boundary 2. In 1982, Sekou founded House of Nehesi Publishers in New York. In 1984, he established the small press in Sint Maarten, where he lives and continues to publish well-known and new writers www.houseofnehesipublish.com.