(Belgium, 1971) is an author, historian and archaeologist, known for his multifaceted contributions to literature and intellectual discourse. He is currently Philosopher Laureate of the Low Countries. Upon his appointment, he published De wereld en de aarde (The World and the Earth, 2025), in which he makes a groundbreaking proposal to radically broaden our thinking—and our politics. For the greatest security issue of our time is not the world with its mutual conflicts, but the earth, which is becoming increasingly disrupted. His oeuvre covers a range of genres, including historical non-fiction, poetry, and theater. Among his best-known works are Congo (2010), about the country's bewildering history, and Revolusi (2020), which places Indonesia's struggle for independence in a global perspective through eyewitness accounts. In addition to his literary work, Van Reybrouck is known as ‘one of Europe's leading intellectuals’ (Tagesspiegel), whose ideas relate to themes such as democracy, climate, and colonialism. He regularly publishes opinion pieces in international publications. 

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was born in Nigeria. He worked as a lecturer and journalist in Nigeria before he moved to England to become the African Writing Fellow at the University of East Anglia. In 2002 he published his first novel, Waiting for an Angel. His writing has won many prizes including the Caine Prize, 2001, and the Commonwealth Writers Prize, 2003. In 2005/2006 he became the Chinua Achebe Fellow at Bard College, New York.
In 2006 he co-edited the British Council's anthology, New Writing 14. His second novel, Measuring Time, was published in 2007, it won the Virginia Library Foundation Fiction Award, 2008. His third novel, Oil on Water, was published in the US in 2011. His anthology, The Granta Book of the African Short Story came out in September, 2011. Habila teaches Creative Writing at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, where he lives with his wife and three children.

(Zimbabwe, 1971) debuted in 2009 with the short-story collection An Elegy for Easterly, followed by her first novel The Book of Memory (2015) and another story collection, Rotten Row (2016). Her new book Out of Darkness, Shining Light tells the story of the perilous, months-long trek made in 1873 by 69 workers to transport the body of the explorer David Livinstone from central Africa to the Zanzibar coast, so it could eventually be buried in England. "I write the history of the black people of Zimbabwe, those about whom nobody ever speaks." Gappah studied law in Zimbabwe and Cambridge, worked as a lawyer, and lives in Berlin as artist-in-residence. She has won many international prizes for her work.

(Iraq, 1971) fled his country in 1998 after completing architecture studies, was given asylum in the Netherlands and settled there legally in 2007. Since then he has published poetry, novels and collections of his columns. He received the 2000 El Hizjra literature award and the 2011 Literature Prize of the European Union. In 2013 he published Liever niet, antwoordt de liefde (Maybe Not, Was Love's Reply), an anthology of refreshing love poetry. His novel Hoe ik talent voor het leven kreeg (Two Blankets, Three Sheets) tells of his experiences as an asylum seeker in the Netherlands. Al Galidi published the short story collection Duizend-en-een-nachtmerries (A Thousand and One Nightmares) in 2017 and a poem collection Neem de titel serieus (Take the title seriously) in 2018.

(Curaçao, 1988) is a virtuoso in several musical fields. The instrument he masters best is the cuatro. This instrument came from Venezuela. Rhazul has practiced the art of playing cuatro for six years. On the 4th of December 2011 he held his first concert to raise funds for the purchase of a professional cuatro, and to continue studying this instrument. Rhazul functions as musical director of several cultural groups. Besides this, he teaches cuatro lessons at a music school on Curacao. For his presentation during Krusa Laman-Writers Unlimited Curaçao on April 20, 2012, Rhazul has organized his musical group with the following members: Rhazul Sebelon (cuatro), Rendel Rosalia (drum/percussion), Rayson Rosalia (hoe/percussion), Jovendrick Kierindongo (bass), Niata Augusta (singer), Silvienne Martie (singer), Zhyona Francisco (back-up singer) and Magindra Francisca (back-up singer).

(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.

Payne (1961) was born and raised in Curaçao of immigrant parents from St Kitts. Her father loved telling all kinds of stories. This aroused her interest and love for storytelling also. In her primary school days she did an impression of Angel Job (El Gordito de Oro), which was so successful, that up to today her primary schoolmates still remember her for it. She left the island for The Netherlands in 1980, and lived there until 2000. She tried different fields of study there, but ended up pursuing her love of theater. She worked as a professional youth theater actress for ‘Jeugdtheater Citadel Groningen’. After finally completing a post graduate course in career development, and after working in career development, she returned to her passion of theater and storytelling. In Curaçao, she also worked as a youth theater actress. She again picked up her beloved storytelling and performed at several events in the Caribbean and USA. In 2010 she was the storyteller for the Music Theater Play, Morto i Laman, at the Oerol Festival in The Netherlands. She received a UNESCO nomination for her efforts in the area of preservation of Mother Language Papiamentu in 2011.

(1967) was born in The Netherlands. In 2008 she published Zoutrif, a hybrid literary work detailing Curacao’s past and present while focusing on the history of one colonial plantation: Rif St. Marie. In addition to archival research for this work, Sluis traced and interviewed Curaçaoans whose roots go back to this plantation. She highlights, among others, villagers, a baker, a consultant and a former prime-minister. Sluis has been active in the Caribbean region as a journalist since 1997, including foreign correspondence positions for Dutch media outlets, such as NOS News and NRC/Handelsblad. In 2004 she made her debut with De Antillen bestaan niet (The Antilles don’t exist) and in 2010, one month after the official dismantling of the Netherlands Antilles, she published Een koloniale speeltuin (A Colonial Playground). Sluis studied Media & Colonialism at UC Berkeley and lives and works in Curaçao.

(1960) was born in Kurá Piedra on the island of Curaçao, a place that was always magical and which instilled in him a sense of the importance of stories and popular cultural forms. He studied Economics in Puerto Rico and Anthropology in the USA, getting in contact with an immense new world, but especially with the Caribbean, Latin America and Africa, opening his mind to the political, cultural, economic and spiritual reality of his region and the world. During this time he wrote poems, which ended up displaced in notebooks lost in constant moves. In the 80's he returned to Curaçao and worked as cultural researcher, eventually becoming director of the Cultural Affairs Office. Afterward he moved to the USA with his family and directed the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke University, where he got involved in the synthesis of art and scholarship. Subsequently he worked for and then directed the Global Medicine Education Foundation. He is the current director of the National Archaeological Anthropological Memory Management, promoting Curaçao's cultural heritage. He has always remained interested in healing and does both individual and group consultations. In 2010 he made his debut as an author with the poetry book titled Kolosenshi. Most of his poems show his interest in culture, collective healing, ethics and daily popular spirituality.