(Nijmegen, NL, 1960) writes essays, short stories and plays, and is a columnist with the daily newspaper NRC Handelsblad. He published the novels Laatste woorden (Last words) and Suez and received the Henriëtte Roland Holst Prize in 2005. In 2011's Moeten wij van elkaar houden, het populisme ontleed (Do We Have to Love One Another? Populism Dissected) Heijne shows how globalisation and individualism pave the way for populism. Angst en schoonheid (Fear and Beauty) was published in 2013, an essay about Dutch writer Louis Couperus, whom Heijne admires. In the same year his documentary about Couperus was broadcast. In 2015 he hosted the five-part documentary De volmaakte mens (The Perfect Human). In 2016 his essay Onbehagen – nieuw licht op de beschaafde mens (Discontent - new light on civilized man) was published. In 2017 Heijne received the P.C. Hooft Award for his essayistic works.

(Georgetown, Penang, Malaysia, 1968) is a Malaysian writer, poet, actor, photographer and filmmaker. She graduated with a B.Ed in English Literature and TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language) from the University of Winnipeg, Canada, and has worked extensively in the arts for over 20 years. Of Chinese and Punjabi parentage, her work stems from the desire to tell stories, and she has worked with marginalised communities from sex workers and refugees to indigenous peoples, in mediums that incorporate film, photography and prose. She has published two collections of poetry, going there and coming back (1997), The Book of Sins (2008), a collection of short stories, Lost in KL (2008) and a critically-acclaimed memoir Growing Up With Ghosts (2011), an exploration of grief, personal and political history, and bloodlines. She works in both Bahasa Malaysia and English, and her work has been exhibited, screened, published locally and internationally. She is also the founder of Readings and CeritAku, two live literary platforms in Kuala Lumpur, now in its eighth year. She lives in Kuala Lumpur with her two daughters and she keeps a blog of her work at bernicechauly.wordpress.com.

(Libanon, 1956) broke through internationally in 2004 with her debut novel B as in Beirut. The story is told by four different women, who have to learn to cope with the consequences of the civil war. The most penetrating is the story of Warda, who goes crazy with grief and guilt-feelings because her father dies in a bomb attack and she loses her little daughter on top of that. In her second book Wild Mulberries (2008) Iman Humaydan describes life in a small Lebanese village in the 1930s. The main character Sarah is a young girl dreaming of a better future and a meeting with her mother, who fled the village and its patriarchal rules when Sarah was small. Iman Humaydan likewise grew up in a small Lebanese village, but in a tolerant family. Her third novel Hayawat Okhra (Other Lives) came out in 2010. It recounts the life of a woman coming back home after so many years of exile to rediscover her city and past. Hayawat Okhra will be published in English and French by the end of 2011. She studied sociology in Beirut and works as a researcher, journalist, and in launching and implementing development projects in Lebanese rural areas.

(Somalia, 1967) fled her native country and settled in the Netherlands in 1987. First she wanted to become an actress, but now she has made a name for herself as a writer. In her novel Een nagelaten verhaal (A Bequeathed Story (2009), she describes a young woman who, invited by a documentary film maker, returns to her motherland for the first time after 23 years. It turns out to be an emotional journey, as she discovers that the country has been ruined, and little is left of her past. Yasmine Allas has been involved in the public debate in the Netherlands. Her book Ontheemd en toch thuis (Homeless Yet Home, 2006) is a collection of essays on life in the multicultural Netherlands, published in the Volkskrant. She calls a spade a spade and often touches sour spots. To her, religious fanaticism is a divisive element in society and must be battled. Social wrongs have played a role in her work from her debut, Idil, een meisje (Idil, a Girl, 1998), in which she describes the troubled life of a Somali girl and exposes the circumcision of women.

(Curaçao, 1960) is a mass communication expert who is also an international journalist and socio-political activist. He studied sociology and Mass Communication at the University of Utrecht. In the 1980's and 90's he worked as a journalist for several written and electronic media in Europe and the Caribbean, among others the International Press Agency IPS, which focusses on developmental issues and news and issues from the Global South. Afterwards he worked in Curaçao as an information and education specialist in the areas of schooling, drug-prevention, the environment and nature. The last two years he has worked as international press officer at ILGA (International Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans and Intersex association) in Brussels, Belgium. Presently he is also a supervisor of the Pink Orange Program aiming at emancipation of sexual diverse communities in the Dutch Caribbean. Mario Kleinmoedig is co-founder of the Curaçao Environmental and Human Rights Movements. As writer, actor and storyteller in the 1990's he was part of the storytelling collective Lingua Franca. He published an ecological storybook for children Zum zum di Shinshon, in 2005.

(Curaçao, 1947), has Indonesian, European, local, Surinamese and Indian roots. She was a teacher, school leader, trainer and coach for educational innovation and has been writing since she was 23 in Dutch and Papiamentu. On her island Curaçao, besides being known as a writer, she is also known as an actress, storyteller, reciter, dramatist/stage director and she’s also actively involved in stimulating and coaching new local writing talent. She obtained her Bachelor of Education in Papiamentu at the Faculty of Arts of the University of the Netherlands Antilles (UNA), and is currently doing her Master of Education in Papiamentu. She received the Zilveren Griffel for her children’s book Nancho van Bonaire (Leopold, 1976). And in 2003 she was awarded the Culture prize for Youth literature of the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds Nederlandse Antillen en Aruba for Caimins Geheim (Leopold/Stichting NANA, 2001). In 1994 she published her first adult novel: De langste maand (In de Knipscheer, 1994), which shows the jungle of drug addiction and unemployment in Curaçao. Her most recent publications are a picture book in Papiamentu called, Fula fula (2005, publication Rotary Curaçao), ‘Vrouwen aan het woord: Waarover we niet moeten praten’ (2007, In de Knipscheer). Unda Olivier ta / Waar is Olivier?(2009) is her latest children’s book in Papiamentu and Dutch, published by Fundashon Sembra Buki in Curaçao. Currently, Diana is working on her second adult novel.

(Bonaire, 1955) Franklin Domenico ('Bòi') Antoin sympathises with the fate of his native island of Bonaire. His love for this island has transformed into a deep interest in the history, the preservation of culture and the protection of nature and the environment of Bonaire. Since 1978 Boi Antoin has worked as a journalist and writer and since 1991 he has published regularly on the history and culture of Bonaire. In the field of nature conservation he is a very committed man. As a journalist he delivers an important contribution to the work of nature conservation groups, by regularly giving positive attention to their work.

(1962) is among Curaçao most renowned concert-pianists and composers of so called classical Curacao salon music, distinctly inspired by the etudes, polkas and mazurkas of the Polish Frederic François Chopin, combined with an exciting Caribbean Rhythm. He has composed several Curaçao waltzes, danzas, mazurkas and tumbas and performs regularly in theaters and other cultural gatherings, both locally as well as internationally. He studied in the 1980’s and “90’s with the master of masters of Curaçao piano-music, the late Edgar Palm, and is founder and pianist of the rhythmic piano ensemble Johnny Kleinmoedig i su Combo. Internationally he has performed, among others, at the Festival de la Cultura in Cancun/Cozumel, Mexico, and at the Multi Etnisch Podium (MEP) Festival in Amsterdam. His most recent international performances were in Wroclaw and Warsaw, Poland, together with fellow Curaçao pianist and composer Wim Statius Muller and Livio Hermans from Aruba, paying hommage to Chopin, as the great inspirer of Curaçao salon music. In daily life he functions as a local Notary of Law.

is a group of musicians who can change their set-up depending on what is requested or offered. For the literary festival Winternachten/Krusa Laman in Curaçao, the group will consist of four women who will present classical Antillean music. Ilja Hunang-de Bell has finished the conservatory for piano at the Twents Conservatorium in the Netherlands. Martha van Bergen started playing the violin when she was nine years old and continued taking music lessons during her study in the Netherlands. From the age of eleven, Elaine Marchena has been playing the violin and kept taking music lessons. After that she continued playing in various classical orchestras and jazz, salsa and mariachi bands. Judy Sprock is an all-round musician. She can play different kinds of instruments, such as the oboe and the flute. For this occasion she will accompany the trio of piano and violins on the flute.