(Paramaribo, Surinam, 1948) moved as a teenager, together with her family, to Amsterdam where she attended secondary school and afterwards studied social sciences. Working in mental healthcare provided her with inspiration for her books. At the age of 44 Ellen Ombre made her debut with the much praised book Maalstroom (Maelstrom) (1992). In this collection of short stories she reflects on her early years in the Netherlands. She also wrote Wie goed bedoelt (Who means well) (1996), an autobiographical travel journal, in which she sketches a picture of the triangular slave trading route between Surinam, the Netherlands and Benin. In 2000 she published the novel Valse verlangens (False desires), where she touches on the prejudices between the Surinamese and the Dutch. In 2004 she published Negerjood in Moederland (Negro-jew in the motherland). Ombre is a member of the international advice committee of the Prins Claus Fund. In 2005 she returned to Surinam.

(1942) was co-founder and treasurer of the Prince Claus Fund for Culture and Development. He studied sociology at the University of Amsterdam and in the United States where he took his Ph.D. in the Columbia University. In 1972 he ruturned to The Netherlands and worked for the section Non-Western Agricultural Sociology of the University Wageningen. From 1989 to 1993 he worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the department development cooperation. Box was director of the European Centre for Development Policy Management from 1993 to 2000. In 2000 he became professor of International cooperation at the University of Maastricht, and in 2005 he succeeded professor Opschoor as rector of the Institute of Social Studies.

(Beiroet, Libanon) studied French Literature at the American University of Beirut. In 1979 she moved to London to study sculpture. Since then she works as a sculptor, writer and publisher. In 1998 she published a collection of short sturies titled Leaving Beirut, Women and the Wars Within. She describes her youth and the civil war in her native country. WIN 2002

(Morocco, 1958) in 2013 won  the Prix Goncourt de la Nouvelle for his collection of short stories The Curious Case of Dassoukine's Trousers. Since his debut in 1996 humor has been his weapon against intolerance, both in his novels and in his other work. In his fiction, such as the collection of short stories Poldermarokkanen (2010), the novels Une année chez les Français (2011) and La femme la plus riche de Yorkshire (2011), Laroui describes time and again the collision between North African culture and Western culture. Laroui grew up in Casablanca and studied econometry, mathematics, physics and architecture in Paris. He lectures French literature and Arab culture at the University of Amsterdam.