No Other Land

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Basel Adra is a young Palestinian activist who has been resisting the forced displacement of his people by the Israeli army in Masafer Yatta, a region in the West Bank, since childhood. He documents the gradual destruction of his homeland, where the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) demolish Palestinian homes and expel their residents. Adra befriends Yuval, an Israeli journalist who helps him in his struggle. They form an unexpected bond, but their friendship is tested by the enormous gap between their living conditions: Basel faces constant military oppression and violence, while Yuval enjoys freedom and security, even though they live only half an hour apart.

No Other Land is a 2024 Palestinian-Norwegian documentary film written and directed by Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor in their directorial debut. The film was made by this Palestinian-Israeli collective of four activists as an act of resistance on the road to justice during the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the region.

The documentary premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in February 2024. In March 2025, the film won the Oscar for Best Documentary.

Information

Date and time Sunday 25 January 2026 from 15:00 to 16:30 hrs
Location Filmhuis Den Haag
Price 12,50 (regular)
10,- (up to 26 years/CJP)
6,25 (Ooievaarspas)
Cineville: free.

Line-up

Leïla Slimani

(Morocco, 1981) is an internationally renowned French-Moroccan writer. She won the prestigious Prix Goncourt in 2016 for Lullaby (US title: The Perfect Nanny) and was the International Booker Prize jury president in 2023. In her work, Slimani writes about female sexuality and autonomy; she denounces the oppression of female sexuality and the double sexual morality towards women. She draws on her own family's story for her novel trilogy The Country of Others (part 1), Watch Us Dance (part 2) and J’emporterai le feu (part 3, to be published in English translation). Starting off in part 1 after WWII during Morocco’s struggle for independence with French-born Mathilde and her Moroccan husband finding themselves caught in the crossfire, part 2 takes place during the 1960s: on the cusp of adulthood, two biracial siblings search for their place in a newly independent Morocco brimming with both possibility and peril. Part 3 takes writer Mia after a COVID-infection to Morocco to explore her family history.
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José Eduardo Agualusa

(Angola, 1960) has published an extensive body of work comprising novels (15 titles), short stories and novellas (7 collections) and numerous journalistic pieces (including for the Brazilian newspaper O Globo). As an important literary voice and a leading author of the Portuguese-speaking world, his at times magical-realist narratives, often rich in historical context, humor and references to Angola, also appeals to many readers outside that world: his work has been translated into at least 25 languages. In A General Theory of Oblivion (2016), a woman with agoraphobia barricades herself in her flat in Luanda. She remains there for thirty years while her country goes through various political stages, from colony to socialist republic and from civil war to peace and capitalism. His latest novel is Mestre dos batuques (2024, Master of Drums). In it, Agualusa rewrites history and describes how drums played an important role in the resistance against the Portuguese colonisers. He also collaborated with Mia Couto on the screenplay for José Miguel Ribeiro's magical realist animated feature film Nayola (2022), which explores this theme.

Watch the trailer of the film Nayola on YouTube
Instagram: @jose_eduardo_agualusa
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Mia You

(South Korea, 1980) is a poet, translator of Korean poetry and film scripts, and lecturer at the Department of English at Utrecht University. She grew up in the United States and lives in Utrecht. Motherhood, birth, heredity, and the racialization of everyday life form the common thread in her balanced lyrical work. She is the author of the (English-language) poetry collection I, Too, Dislike It (1913 Press, 2016) and has published in De Gids, Artforum, Boston Review, and Los Angeles Review of Books, among others. In 2024, her second poetry collection, Festival, was published in English by Belladonna Press and in Dutch by Uitgeverij Chaos. She works on the translation of Kim Hyesoon's poetry collection Synchronized Sea Anemone (2025).

Instagram: @quelpart
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Kim Hyesoon

(South Korea, 1955) is one of South Korea's most important contemporary poets. She teaches creative writing at the Seoul Institute of the Arts. Kim published her first poems in 1979 and was one of the first women to have her work included in the literary magazine Munhak kwa jisŏng (Literature and Intellect), which led the resistance against the military dictatorships of the 1970s and 1980s. Since the 1990s, her work has gained increasing recognition and she has received numerous awards. In her experimental work, she explores the complex existence of women who are grandmothers, mothers and daughters in the context of Korea's highly patriarchal society. Many of Kim Hyesoon's poems have been translated from Korean into English by the Korean-American poet Don Mee Choi, including Kim's books Mommy Must Be a Fountain of Feathers (2008); All the Garbage of the World, Unite! (2011); Sorrowtoothpaste Mirrorcream (2014), I'm OK, I'm Pig! (2014), Autobiography of Death (2018), Phantom Pain Wings (2019), If the Earth Dies, Whom Will the Moon Circle? (2022) and Synchronized Sea Anemone (2025).
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Go to the website of Kim Hyesoon
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Jet Steinz

(The Netherlands, 1990) is a writer and programme maker for the Writers Unlimited Festival The Hague. Together with her father, Pieter Steinz, she published Steinz. Gids voor de wereldliteratuur (Steinz: Guide to world literature, 2005). In this reference book, the writers give an overview of narrative fiction including 416 writers, 104 masterpieces, 52 bookwebs, 52 literary maps, 26 themes, 26 quizzes and 26 one-book wonders. In 2016 her novel De tranen van Saar (The Tears of Saar) were published as part of the Young Adult-book series Sterren van morgen (Stars of Tomorrow). In 2019, she published P.S. Van liefdespost tot hatemail (P.S. From Love Letters to Hatemail), a collection of 150 remarkable, funny or moving letters in Dutch she found in archives. Together with her essayistic descriptions, the facsimiles tell the history of letters while also revealing a portrayal of The Netherlands through the ages.
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Simon Dikker Hupkes

(The Netherlands) is editor of publisher Atlas Contact in Amsterdam, writer and editor of Wie is Poetin? Vladimir Poetin en de oorlog tegen Oekraine in 53 vragen en antwoorden (2023). Among other things, he hosts the podcasts Wie is...? and Van Dis Ongefilterd.
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Ilonka Reintjens

is a producer and project coordinator for literary events. Before this, she worked as publisher and editor at various publishing houses. She currently is business and artistic leader of the literary festival Meet Me at the Lighthouse on the Dutch island Schiermonnikoog, and for Writers Unlimited as a program coordinator and curator for the Writers Unlimited international literary festival The Hague and the monthly Writers Series.
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Elisa Beuger

is an actress, known for her performances on theatre stages, in television series and in feature films. She has performed with theatre companies De Paardenkathedraal and Theatercompagnie. She has appeared in numerous television series, including Divorce, Brussel, De Regels van Floor (five seasons), Morten, Papadag 2, De droom van de jeugd, and De Vuurwerkramp. She can currently be seen in the German series Take the Money and Run (ZDF), in the feature film De Tatta's 3 and soon on Netflix in the series Haantjes 2. She is currently working on the feature film Afterparty, directed by Jean van de Velde.

Instagram: @elisabeuger
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Mojdeh Feili

(1989) is a writer, editor, book reviewer and programme maker. She writes for Het Parool, Oneworld, Storytel, Dipsaus and Lilith Magazine. In 2021, her story Zeemeermens was published in the collection Damn Horny and in 2020, her story Eindelijk als Alice was published in the collection De goede immigrant. She studied ‘English Literature in a Visual Culture’, specialising in American literature from around the second feminist wave and the sexual revolution. Mojdeh creates programmes for, among others, the Writers Unlimited International Literature Festival The Hague.

Instagram: @mosh212
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Jante Wortel

(The Netherlands, 1996) is a writer of short stories, essays, and novels. Her first novel, Weerlicht (2022), was nominated for De Bronzen Uil, Best Book for Young People, and the Hebban Debut Prize. The novel is a powerful debut about the suffocating dynamics of a family and the question of how to help someone who is compulsively destroying themselves with an eating disorder. Her second novel, Ik, de ander (Me, the Other, 2025), slowly but surely draws you into the quicksand of a toxic relationship. Together with author Corinne Heyrman, she performs in the theatrical performance Onder de huid (Under the Skin) about the porous relationship between the character, the writer, and the world. In Het ongemak van een lichaam (The Discomfort of a Body, to be published in January 2026 by De Arbeiderspers), Jante and Corinne interweave their experiences of writing about an eating disorder, allowing honesty in it, and the taboo that surrounds it.

Instagram: @bospeens
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Maarten van der Graaff

(The Netherlands, 1987) debuted in 2013 with Vluchtautogedichten (Getaway Car Poems), which won the C. Buddingh' Prize. The jury praised his "boasting, swagger, and bravado." Van der Graaff escapes everyday reality in his very own getaway car — namely poetry — looking for new dimensions. His second volume Dood werk (Dead Work, 2015) won the J.C. Bloem Prize. He publishes poetry and prose in various magazines, performs regularly, and is editor and co-founder of the online literary magazine Samplekanon. His first novel Wormen en engelen (Worms and Angels, 2017) is a contemporary quest for the meaning of faith. In 2020 he published the poetry collection Nederland in stukken (The Netherlands in Pieces), followed by his second novel Onder asfalt (Under Asphalt, 2022). He curates compelling poetry recitation programmes each year for Writers Unlimited.

Go to website Maarten van der Graaff
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Daniëlle Zawadi

(1999) is a writer of prose, spoken word, theatre pieces and columns. She performs throughout the Netherlands, publishes in literary magazines, and made her theatrical debut with the one-woman show Alstublieft, Zawadi (Please, Zawadi), followed by Ondervonden (Filed Under, 2023). Her stories are often about what it means to be a a second-generation bicultural GenZ-er, her Congolese roots, and friendship. In 2025, she published Ik kan eigenlijk niet op deze manier werken (I Can't Really Work This Way), a collection of recitation texts dedicated to the FreePalestine, FreeSudan, and FreeCongo movements. She is also a curator of literary programmes. In her home town The Hague, she founded Het Zwarte Schaap (The Black Sheep), a platform for word art and spoken literature that participated in the 2025 Writers Unlimited Festival with presentations and spoken-word performances.

Go to the website of Daniëlle Zawadi
Instagram: @daniellezawadi
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Dario Goldbach

(The Netherlands, 1992) wants to write books for people who don't read. He first published the novella Vier Weekeinden, followed by De Man die Alles Had (The Man Who Had Everything, 2023): a novel about a tech giant, an ever-growing lie and an unattainable love. Monthly, Dario appears on The Beat with Justin Verkijk on Dutch national radio station 3FM with columns on nightlife. He performed at festivals such as Lowlands, Wildeburg and Writers Unlimited. He is co-founder, programme maker and presenter of De Situatie Leesclub, the literary platform of PIP Den Haag.

Instagram: @dariogoldbach
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Shantie Singh

(The Netherlands, 1982) is an author, program maker, and moderator. Themes such as identity, diversity, women's rights, and emancipation are often central to her work. Her background is layered and connected to three continents in the countries of India, Suriname, and The Netherlands. She wrote about this in her debut novel Vervoering. This was followed by the novel De kier. In 2024, her non-fiction book Na de komma – Hindostanen en de erfenis van het kolonialisme (After the Comma – Hindustani People and the Legacy of Colonialism) was published, her plea for greater recognition and visibility of the Hindustani story in the Netherlands. This book inspired her theatre production Her (s)tories (2024-2025), an ode to the women from Hindustani migration history. In her De Dolle Kavita Talkshow, Shantie welcomes trailblazers (women, men, or anything in between) with a story that needs to be heard. She is also a member of the feministic writers collective Fixdit.

Go to the website of Shantie Singh
Instagram: @shantie.singh1
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Ellen Deckwitz

(The Netherlands, 1982) is a poet, columnist, critic and presenter at literary events, including Writers Unlimited. For De steen vreest mij (2011), she was awarded the C. Buddingh’ Prize for the best poetry debut. Her collection Hogere natuurkunde (2019) is part travelogue, part myth and part testimony, and the outcome of conversations Deckwitz engaged in with individuals whose roots also trace back to the former Dutch East Indies. In 2022, Eerste hulp bij poëzie was published, an omnibus containing her collections Olijven moet je leren lezen (2020) and Dit gaat niet over grasmaaien (2021). Deckwitz writes columns for national daily newspaper NRC. In her NPO Luister podcast Poëzie vandaag, she presents a Dutch or translated poem every workday morning. She is one of three critics of podcast Boeken FM. Since Autumn 2025, she has been one of the presenters of Nooit meer Slapen, the VPRO's night-time cultural radio programme.

Instagram: @la_deck
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Adriaan van Dis

(The Netherlands, 1946) grew up in a family with a past in the Dutch East Indies. He draws on these experiences in several of his works such as My Father's War (1995), Repatriated (2002) and in Naar zachtheid en een warm omhelzen (2023). Van Dis became well known via his literary television programme Here is... Adriaan van Dis (1983-1992). In addition to novels he has written novellas, travelogues, essays and plays. He presented TV documentary series and his podcast Van Dis Ongefilterd. He has received the Constantijn Huygens Award for his entire body of work. Recent publications are the collection Vijf vrolijke verhalen (2021), the novel KliFi, woede in de republiek Nederland (2022) and the essay De kolonie mept terug: over witte arrogantie en voortschrijdend inzicht: een denkoefening en leesreis (2024). During the Writers Unlimited Festival 2026, Van Dis will be the main interview guest on Saturday afternoon, 24 January, following the publication of his new book Alles voor de reis (Everything for the Journey), and on Sunday morning, 25 January, he and interviewer Simon Dikker Hupkes will record a new episode of his podcast series Van Dis Ongefilterd (Van Dis Unfiltered) live with an audience.

Go to website of Adriaan van Dis
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Anne Jonker

(1997) is an interdisciplinary PhD candidate at Leiden University. She researches individuals and groups who do not (or no longer) recognise the system or no longer wish to acknowledge it, and explores themes such as modern alienation, nostalgia and our imagination of the future. She also works at De Situatie, the literary platform of PIP The Hague. During the Writers Unlimited Festival 2026, she will be one of the interviewers for the programme Book of My Life, part of Friday Night Unlimited.
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Diann van Faassen

(The Netherlands) is a poet. writing teacher, city guide and programme maker from The Hague. She gives poetry and performance workshops at schools and cultural organisations. Diann's work has been included in various anthologies and often has a link to the city of The Hague. In the time that remains, she takes you as a city guide on a poetic tour of The Hague, providing the most beautiful spots with surprising stories. For the Writers Unlimited, she guides pupils from schools in The Hague at the educational initiative De Stem van de Stad (The Voice of the City). Diann walks with pupils through The Hague and tells stories. She inspires them to write a Very Short Story about their vision of and connection with the city. Diann then introduces the pupils at their performance in the festival.

Instagram @diannvanfaassen
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Judith Uijterlinde

(The Netherlands, 1962) is a writer, literary journalist, publisher and, since 2023, director of Writers Unlimited. Her autobiographical debut The Baby Void – My Quest for Motherhood (2001) was an international success and has been published in more than 20 countries. De vrouw die zegt dat ze mijn moeder is (The Woman Who Claims She's My Mother, 2010) recounts adoption in a family history set against the backdrop of World War II. Uyterlinde worked as editor and publisher for several literary publishers, including De Bezige Bij and J.M. Meulenhoff. Between 2007 and 2015, she was also associated with Writers Unlimited, first as a producer and later as the festival's event coordinator. Since 2017 she has been publisher/director at World Editions, specializing in English-language translated literature from around the world. For the Amsterdam Public Library, she runs the Literary Salon, and for Women Inc., the literature series Read My Lips. She coordinated the literary part of the Guest of Honour program presenting Dutch and Flemish literature at the 2016 Frankfurt Book Fair.
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Margot Dijkgraaf

(The Netherlands, 1960) is a literary critic, writer, curator, interviewer, debate leader and "ambassador between France and the Netherlands in the field of literature", as a French ambassador once said. She has been writing about literature for some 30 years, mainly for the NRC daily. She published books on French and European literature, on Hella S. Haasse and Cees Nooteboom. Her In de voetsporen van mijn grootvader (2021) is an autobiographical search for her literary genes. Before that, she published Met Parijse pen. Literaire omzwervingen (in collaboration with photographer Bart Koetsier, 2020), which takes readers to Paris for walks in the footsteps of famous Dutch and French writers. She was joint artistic curator of the Netherlands' Guest of Honour role at the 2024 Leipzig Book Fair with German journalist Bettina Baltschev.

Go to the website of Margot Dijkgraaf
Instagram: @margotdijkgraaf
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Gerson Main

(Suriname, 1987) is a versatile theatre maker, musician, writer and poet who has made the Dutch language his instrument. Since reaching the final of De beste singer-songwriter van Nederland in 2015, he has enchanted many audiences with his narrative songs. He has collaborated on theatre productions such as Daar Ergens with Akwasi, which played at Oerol and in sold-out venues, and his own show Ga weg, maar blijf, which was performed at De Parade. Gerson has also written music for artists such as Dio and Stef Bos. He recently released his second album, Weg van dit feestje, which is also the title of his new theatre performance he plays starting 17 January 2026. He is the author of the children's book Alle dingen die mijn opa stiekem is, illustrated by Hedy Tjin.

Go to the website of Gerson Main
Gerson Main on Spotify
Instagram: @gersonmain
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Hedy Tjin

(1985) is an illustrator and visual artist from Amsterdam. Tjin is known for powerful colours expressing subjects of societal value, whether in murals, textile prints or illustrated books. Her vivid visuals invite people to explore subjects in a new way. The influence of cultural and ethnic issues is very much at the core of her work, bearing strong references to time she spent in her native country of Suriname. Tjin illustrated books such as Op de rug van Bibi Kayman by Henna Goudzand Nahar and made with Zindzi Zevenbergen the awarded books Lennox en de Gouden Sikkel (Lennox and the Golden Crescent, 2022, together with Brian Elstak) and De reis van Manie Schaafijs (The Journey of Manie Schaafijs, 2023). Recently she illustrated Alle dingen die mijn opa stiekem is (All things my granddad secretly is), a comforting picturebook about dealing with loss and the power of imagination written by singer-songwriter and poet Gerson Main.

Go to the website of Hedy Tjin
Instagram: @tjinhedy
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Simon(e) van Saarloos

is a writer, artistic collaborator and curator. They are the author of Against Ageism. A Queer Manifesto (2023); Take ‘Em Down. Scattered Monuments and Queer Forgetting (2021) and Playing Monogamy (2019) as well as several books in Dutch: Herdenken herdacht (2019); Enz. Het Wildersproces (2018); the novel De vrouw die (2016); the collection of columns Ik deug / deug niet ( 2015) and Het monogame drama (2015). . Van Saarloos works as an independent curator of public programming and artistic collaborations. A current PhD candidate in Rhetoric at the University of California, Berkeley, they are interested in Black feminist engagements with quantum physics and focused on the rhetorical (im)possibility of existence without defense. Van Saarloos is currently writing a new book for AK Press, titled Trans Despair: Staying Unrelated and Insecure.

Go the website of Simon(e) van Saarloos
Instagram: @svansaarloos
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Simone Atangana Bekono

(The Netherlands, 1991) is a writer of prose and poetry. She has written columns and essays for various newspapers and magazines and is an editor at the literary magazine De Revisor. In 2016, she graduated from the Creative Writing program at ArtEZ with a collection of poems and letters titled Hoe de eerste vonken zichtbaar waren (How the first sparks became visible). In 2018, the collection was awarded the Poëziedebuutprijs Aan Zee. Her debut novel Confrontaties (Confrontations) was highly praised and won the Hebban Debut Prize, the Anton Wachter Prize, and the Best Book for Young Adults Award. In 2022, Simone wrote the novella Zo hoog de zon stond for the Brabants Book Present. In 2024, her second poetry collection Marshmallow was awarded with the Jan Campert-prijs.
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Pankaj Mishra

(India, 1968), one of the most influential writers of fiction and nonfiction of our time, made his international breakthrough with his novel The Romantics, about an Indian student, who in the holy city of Benares is confronted with Western customs and mentality. He reached many readers worldwide with From the Ruins of Empire (2012), a study of the creation and development of an Asean ideology and self-conscience after 1905, losening itself from European colonialism. January 2017 he published Age of Anger: A History of the Present in which Mishra accounts for the resurgence of reactionary and right-wing political movements in the late 2010s. He contributes political and literary essays to the Guardian, the London Review of Books, the New York Review of Books and the New Yorker. He recently published The World After Gaza: A History.
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Sheena Patel

(United Kingdom) is a writer, poet, and assistant director for film and television. Her debut novel, I'm a Fan (2022), won the Discover Book of the Year at the British Book Awards. “I stalk a woman on the internet who sleeps with the same man as me.” After this initial confession, a young woman recounts her affair with a successful, married man. When it turns out that he has several mistresses, including an insufferable influencer, she develops an obsession not only with the man, but also with his popular mistress. It culminates in a fiery story about desire, love, and an unequal power dynamic. The narrator keeps a close eye on the Instagrammer's social media and her friends minute by minute. The Guardian: “A fizzing debut that's hard to put down. Patel's searing novel skitters through a world of toxic exes, mean girls, and bad jobs—and it's addictive.”

Instagram: @imightbesheenapatel
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Corinne Heyrman

(Belgium, 1994) is a writer, theatre and podcast maker and one of two City Writers of Eindhoven. Corinne directed the plays Toen mijn vader nog een gastarbeider was (2019) and The Pink Sheep of the Family (2022) for Het Zuidelijk Toneel. As a podcast maker, she contributes to Radio Kras, De Bijsluiter, and Drie uur 's nachts. In her debut novel Het begin en zijn oneindigheid (The Beginning and Its Infinity, 2022), Marcel ends up with a depression in the psychiatric hospital where his granddaughter also stayed years earlier in the eating disorders ward. Together with author Jante Wortel, she performs in their theatrical conversation Onder de huid (Under the Skin) about the porous relationship between the character, the writer, and the world. In their book Het ongemak van een lichaam (The Discomfort of a Body, to be published in January 2026 at De Arbeiderspers), Jante and Corinne interweave their experiences of writing about an eating disorder, allowing honesty in it, and the taboo that surrounds it.

Go to the website of Corinne Heyrman
Instagram: @corinneheyrman
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Mahat Arab

(The Netherlands, 1996) is a spoken word artist, writer and organizer of books and poetry events. Many of his lyrics are about identity, awkwardness but also the humour we can encounter in discomfort. His work has appeared in De Revisor and Het Parool, and he has performed in De Nacht van De Poëzie, Brainwash Festival, Lowlands, Down The Rabbit Hole, Zwarte Cross and theatres throughout the Netherlands and Belgium, among others. Furthermore, Mahat is a literary programme maker at Poetry Circle, Mensen Zeggen Dingen and Brainwash Festival. He is also a team member of Club Lees, VPRO's online reading club. He played his self-written performance Een poëtisch rommeltje on several stages, including Oerol 2025.

Instagram: @mahat.ar
Instagram: @vproclublees
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Dimitri Verhulst

(Belgium, 1972) has written an extensive body of novels, stories, novellas, poetry and plays. His work has been published in more than 20 languages. He is known for his sharp, humorous, and unvarnished writing style. His big breakthrough came in 2006 with The Misfortunates, an autobiographical sketch of a Flemish suburb that spawned a screen adaptation. Godverdomse dagen op een godverdomse bol (Goddamned Days on a Goddamned Ball, 2008) depicts the history of mankind in 200 pages and won the Libris Literature Prize. De pruimenpluk (The Plum Harvest, 2019) is Verhulst's homage to failing humanity. Onze verslaggever in de leegte (Our Reporter in the Void, 2020) is a painfully honest book in the tradition of Jeroen Brouwers and Charles Bukowski, showing us a writer as he does not want to be seen. Recently published novels are Hebben en zijn (2022), about a rehab clinic to kick the habit of life, and Bechamel Mucho (2024), about Alex, an entertainer at a club hotel in Mallorca.

Instagram: @dimitrivh
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Robin Block

(The Netherlands, 1980) is a poet and musician. His performances combine language, music and the bodily. Following his roots and family history, much of his work is related to the colonial past of the Netherlands and Indonesia, as well as the topics of belonging and displacement. His last poetry collection Handbook for the Displaced was awarded the Herman de Coninck prize and the J.C. Bloem poetry prize, and was translated into English and Indonesian. Several of his poems were screened in Manual for the Displaced, a poetry film project together with cinematographer Jeremy Flohr. Block also writes columns, teaches poetry and works as an editor for Dutch poetry magazine Awater.

Go to the website of Robin Block
Instagram: @robinblock
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Kim Holland

(The Netherlands, 1969) is a Dutch former porn actress, lovelife coach, film and video channel producer, internet publisher and columnist. In 2004, she published her book Sexpower, in which she writes about how women can gain more confidence in the area of sex. Since 2015, Kim has had a practice where she gives advice on love, relationships and sexuality.
Instagram: @kimhollandnieuws
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Francis Broekhuijsen

(The Netherlands, 1970) is a presenter, producer, actor and voice-over artist specializing in music, literature, arts and culture. After graduating as actor from the Toneelschool Amsterdam he was a member, among others, of the ensemble of the Nationale Toneel. He was a presenter at Amsterdam-based broadcaster AT5 and a radio producer with the KRO on national network NPO Radio 1. He narrates audio books, and was shortlisted for the Storytel Award 2019 for Best Audio Book with his reading of Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer's novel Grand Hotel Europa. Until last year, he presented on radio station Sublime the daily morning show Sublime Sunrise, the Instagram poetry programme Sublime Smooth and evening show The Sublime Experience. In 2025 he wrote and hosted the tv-series Kringlopen met Francis on regional Dutch broadcaster NH. Broekhuijsen works for Writers Unlimited as festival curator and presenter.

Go to the website of Francis Broekhuijsen
Instagram: @francisbroekhuijsen
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Lieke Marsman

(The Netherlands, 1990) was awarded the Constantijn Huygens Prize 2025 for her oeuvre. According to the jury, that oeuvre is ‘leading within contemporary Dutch literature. She dares to experiment with form and knows how to appeal to a large, often young audience’. Marsman made her debut in 2010 with the poetry collection Wat ik mijzelf graag voorhoud (What I like to tell myself), which won several awards. Her first novel, Het tegenovergestelde van een mens (The opposite of a human being), was published in 2017. In it, she interweaves prose with poetry and essays to highlight the theme of climate change. In De volgende scan duurt vijf minuten (The next scan will take five minutes, 2018), she explores how a sick body relates to a sick world. Mijn mand (My basket, 2021) tackles major themes: the value of life and the place of death in a human life. In 2025, Op een andere planeet kunnen ze me redden (On another planet they can save me) was published. Living with death changed Marsman's worldview. The book is a philosophical journey into the depths of the human mind, interspersed with diary excerpts describing how death is hot on her heels.

Instagram: @liekemarsman
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Dean Bowen

(The Netherlands, 1984) is a poet, performer and events programmer. As evident in his multilingual poetry collection Bokman (2018), his work looks at the relationship of people's identity to society. A strong performance won him the first Van Dale SPOKEN Award. In 2019 and 2020 he was poet laureate of Rotterdam. Ik vond geen spoken in Achtmaal (I Found No Ghosts in Achtmaal, 2020) describes, via diary entries, poems, confessions, and rituals, the search for what remains of a person long after he has died. He has published poems on the online platforms SampleKanon and Hard//Hoofd and in magazines such as nY and Kunsttijdschrift Vlaanderen. He teaches performance literature and poetry at the Creative Writing programme at ArtEZ. Together with Flemish writer and musician Joost Hoekaf, he creates introspective hip hop in the Vudu Cru project. His next collection, Masc:r, will be published in January 2026.

Instagram: @dean_bowen
Instagram: @vudu.cru
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Maxime Garcia Diaz

(The Netherlands, 1993) writes poetry and prose in Dutch and English. She studied at the University of Amsterdam and the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Her debut collection Het is warm in de hivemind (It's warm in the hivemind) was published in 2021 and was awarded the C. Buddingh' Prize for best poetry debut in 2022. In November 2025, her second poetry collection was published in both Dutch and English by De Bezige Bij: Het netwerk moet gebouwd worden and The network must be built.

Go to website Maxim Garcia Diaz
Instagram @maximgarciadiaz
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Benzokarim

(1996) is a poet and performer. In 2022, he won the El Hizjra literature prize for poetry and published his debut collection El Ghorba. In it, he talks to his father, mourns his mother and writes poetry about experiences that are recognisable to anyone with a migrant background. His second collection, Ons gaan allemaal (We're all going), has been awarded with the Jan Campert Prize 2025, yearly prize for poetry. As coach of Poetry Circle 070 and editor of Mensen Zeggen Dingen, he is working hard to pave the way for a new generation of world improvers. Benzokarim is Rotterdam's City Poet in 2025 and 2026.

Bekijk de website van Benzokarim
Instagram: @benzokarim_
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Jennifer Muntslag

(1983) also known as JNM the Naked MC, is a versatile presenter, actress, MC and performer who has built a strong reputation within the cultural and creative sector. Professionally, she is known for her dynamic and energetic stage presence, bringing events to life with her unique style of presenting and interacting with the audience. As ‘The Naked MC’, Jennifer is known for her “unfiltered” and honest style. ‘Naked’ refers to her urge to speak and act without masks or façades.
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Jan van Zanen

(1961) is Mayor of The Hague since 1 July 2020. He spent his youth in Edam-Volendam in the Netherlands and completed his Law studies at the Free University of Amsterdam and Cornell Law School in Ithaca, New York, USA. He then went to work as board and executive secretary for a national business association, among other positions, until 1998. Van Zanen started as a city counciler in Utrecht in 1990, then became alderman for finance, economic affairs, public space and monuments in 1998. From 2003 to 2008, he served as national chairman of the VVD Dutch political party. From July 2005 to December 2013, Van Zanen was Mayor of Amstelveen and as of January 1, 2014, Mayor of Utrecht. From June 2015 to June 2023, he was chairman of the Association of Dutch Municipalities (VNG).
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Sophia Blyden

(The Netherlands, 1993) is a writer, poet, curator at Oerol and Mensen Zeggen Dingen, and editor of literary magazine Tirade. Her prose and poetry explore themes such as loneliness, power relationships, and her Caribbean roots. She has presented her poetry at a variety of Dutch literary events and publications. In her debut collection Dobberen (2024), the development from girl to woman is central to various storylines. How much control do you have over your body, boundaries and future?

Go to the website of Sophia Blyden
Instagram: @mrspillybean
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Mirjam van Hengel

(The Netherlands, 1967) is a writer and programme maker for ILFU, among others. In 2014, her book Hoe mooi alles. Leo en Tineke Vroman, een liefde in oorlogstijd (How beautiful everything is. Leo and Tineke Vroman, a love in wartime) was published, followed in 2018 by her biography of Remco Campert, Een knipperend ogenblik (A fleeting moment), which was awarded the Henriëtte de Beaufort Prize. Dola, about writer and dancer Dola de Jong, was published in 2022. Van Hengel was an editor at Uitgeverij Van Oorschot and Uitgeverij Querido for many years. She has edited numerous collected works and poetry anthologies and writes for De Volkskrant, among others. Her most personal book, Ganzentijd (Goose Time), about her father and herself as his daughter, was recently published.

Go to the website of Mirjam van Hengel
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Najiba Abdellaoui

(1981) is a writer and translator of children's books and a poet. Since August 2025, she will be Tilburg's City Poet for two years. Her career as a poet began in 2000 when she won the El Hizjra Literature Prize and the Kunstbendeprijs. In 2008, her first children's book, Nasim en Natalie, which she wrote together with Pieter Feller, was published, and she won the Dutch Poetry Slam Championship. She has written children's books including Mir en de muusjes (4+), Lachen! (6+) and Het sleutelbos (10+). Najiba regularly gives workshops to children and young people to help them tell their own stories and write poems.

Go to the website of Najiba Abdellaoui
Instagram: @najiba.writes
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Maartje Wortel

(The Netherlands, 1982) writes novels, non-fiction and theatre, has published stories in various literary magazines and has written columns for NRC Handelsblad. Her debut was the short story collection Dit is jouw huis (This is your house, 2010). IJstijd (Ice Age, 2014), awarded with the BNG Literature Prize, is a witty novel about love, literature and identity. The stories in her collection Er moet iets gebeuren (Something Must Happen, 2015) are alienating and logical at the same time, chaotic and orderly, funny and harsh. The novel Dennie is een star (Dennie is a Star, 2019) is about time and space, about religion, about sex and, above all, about Dennie, the cat. In Maartje's novel Camping (2024), camping is not an idyllic activity. The guests at Victorien's camping are all on the run: from a crying baby, a sex scandal, war trauma or a stifling marriage.

Go to the website of Maartje Wortel
Instagram: @maartjewortel
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Forugh Karimi

(Afghanistan, 1971) is a succesful Afghan-Dutch writer and psychiatrist. At the age of 25, she fled to the Netherlands with her husband. She studied medicine at the University of Amsterdam and works as a psychiatrist and psychotherapist in her own practice in 's-Hertogenbosch. In February 2022, she made her debut with the novel De moeders van Mahipar (The Mothers of Mahipar), which was awarded the Hebban Literature Prize a year later. In 2023, she published the novella Nargis, followed in 2025 by her novel In mijn ogen draag ik wolken (In My Eyes I Carry Clouds) in which Karimi interweaves the story of 15-year-old Widá's flight with parts of Afghan history.
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Thomas Heerma van Voss

(The Netherlands,1990) is a writer of novels, short stories, reviews and essays. He made his debut at the age of 19 with the novel De Allestafel. This was followed by the highly acclaimed novels Stern (2013) and Condities (2020). In Condities, Vincent Pek has been struggling for years with a book that refuses to come together and battling an illness that refuses to go away. He decides to seek refuge in a last resort: writing about his chronic condition. His novel Het archief (The Archive, 2024) is partly based on his experiences as an editor of the literary magazine De Revisor. It also deals with illness and the decline of loved ones, and how to relate to something that is disappearing. In 2025, De prullenbak heeft veel plezier aan mij (The wastepaper basket enjoys me) was published, for which Heerma van Voss interviewed writers Judith Herzberg, Jan Siebelink and Mensje van Keulen, among others.

Go to website of Thomas Heerma van Vos
Instagram: @thomashvv
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Simone Zeefuik

is an Afro-Dutch writer, cultural programmer and organiser whose work revolves around everyday life, joy and social justice. She focuses on imagination as access, on (de)spectacularising Blackness and on (digital) archives. Zeefuik is a programmer at the Bijlmer Parktheater in Amsterdam and a lecturer at Zawdie Sandvliet's Afro-Dutch Studies. From 2021 to 2023, she was programme director of the temporary master's programme Blacker Blackness at the Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam, which she initiated. Her work focuses on imagination as a method to decolonise, decode and liberate representations of Black people and Blackness in art and design.

Go to the website of Simone Zeefuik
Instagram: @lazeefuik
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Lin An Phoa

(1995) writes poetry and performs as a spoken word artist. In her work, she explores how language, poetry, and the stage can be welcoming spaces, with room for underrepresented perspectives. She investigates questions surrounding cultural identity, feminism, choice menus, systemic criticism, muscle memory, and self-care culture. Her poetry is an invitation to connection, softening, and change. Her texts have appeared in De Revisor and the anthology Stip op de Horizon, among others. She can be seen as both a performer and host at many cultural venues and festivals.

Go to the website of Lin An Phoa
Instagram: @linanph
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Hanna Bervoets

(The Netherlands, 1984) is a writer of novels, screenplays, plays, short stories and essays on media and popular (online) culture. Bervoets made her debut in 2009 with Of hoe waarom (Or How Why), followed two years later by Lieve Céline (Dear Céline), which was awarded the Opzij Literature Prize. A year later, the bestseller Alles wat er was (Everything That Was) was published, followed by Efter (2014), Ivanov (2016), Fuzzie (2017) and Welkom in het Rijk der zieken (Welcome to the Kingdom of the Sick) (2019). In 2017, Bervoets won the BNG Bank Literature Prize for Ivanov, and in the same year she also won the Frans Kellendonk Prize for her entire oeuvre. In 2021, her first collection of short stories, Een modern verlangen (A Modern Desire), was published and awarded the J.M.A. Biesheuvel Prize. In 2025, her tenth novel, Geld verdienen (Earning Money), was published. When Ellie and Freya each need money for their own reasons, they decide to take control of the stock market. After all, don't they deserve to be rich too?

Go to the website of Hanna Bervoets
Instagram: @hannabervoets
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Noah de Campos Neto

(2002) is a Dutch Booktok hero, known for his accounts @noahleest (TikTok) and @nietnoah (Instagram). There, he shares book tips and the ins & outs about his insane reading habit (he reads more than 100 books a year). He is also a regular team member of Club Lees, VPRO's online reading club. Reading brings him peace in his always busy head and new insights about the world around him. Noah's favourite genres are romance, young adult, thrillers and dystopian stories. Besides being a book fanatic, this Almere native is a Media & Culture student as well as a barista.

Instagram: @nietnoah
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Andrew Makkinga

(Uganda, 1982) is since 2024 one of the three resident hosts of Kunststof, Dutch national public network NTR's culture and media programme, which is broadcast Monday to Thursday between 7 and 8 pm on NPO Radio 1. Andrew is no stranger to the Dutch media landscape: at 17, he was discovered as a talented debater in national Dutch debating competition Op weg naar het Lagerhuis (On the way to the Congress). After that, he soon ended up in radio. His interests and network extend from hip-hop, jazz and reggae to various types of classical music, literature, politics, theatre and visual arts. For years, he has been a regular at North Sea Jazz and many other (music) festivals; for his NPO Soul & Jazz-podcast series Makkinga Moves, he conducted countless interviews with artists.
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Hanneke van der Paardt

(1996) is an actor, writer and theatre-maker. For BANG, her 'razor-sharp monologue about the experience of fear,' she received the BNG Theater Prize 2025, the most important Dutch award for emerging theater talent. In it, a young woman attempts to understand her fears and escape them at the same time. Previously, you could see her in the Videoland series Follow de SOA (Follow the STD), she lived in Germany for a while and worked there at the renowned Theaterhaus Jena. She is also a team member of Club Lees, VPRO's online reading club. Hanneke prefers to read women writers, especially fiction, unusual autobiographies and essays on culture and politics. And hiking books!

Go the website of Hanneke van der Paardt
Instagram: @hannekevdpaardt
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Lize Spit

(Belgium, 1988) grew up in the Antwerp Kempen region, but has lived in Brussels since 2005. In 2016, she made her successful debut as a novelist with The Melting (2021), a story about a girl named Eva who grows up with two boys from her small Flemish village. Everything changes when the boys reach puberty and present Eva with an impossible choice. The book was translated into fifteen languages and won several awards. In 2020, her second novel Ik ben er niet (I am not there) was published, a story about devotion and betrayal, about two people who are flawed in their own way, but who do their utmost to be noticed, to love and to live. Lize also publishes prose and poetry in various literary magazines and is a columnist for Flemish daily newspaper De Morgen. Her critically acclaimed book Autobiografie van mijn lichaam (Autobiography of My Body, 2024) is a poignant, confrontational, but also loving exploration by a daughter who tries to understand not only her mother, but also her own troubled relationship with her body.

Go to the website of Lize Spit
Instagram: @lizespit
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Pamela Sneed

(USA) is a New York City-based poet, performer, visual artist, and educator. She is the author of Sweet Dreams (2018), KONG and Other Works (2009) and Imagine Being More Afraid of Freedom than Slavery (1998). Her memoir Funeral Diva (2020), a poetry and prose book, documents growing up in the midst of the AIDS crisis, and focuses specifically on the experiences of Black queer women. Sneed has toured poetry and performance works domestically and abroad. Her recent show, A Tribute to Big Mama Thornton, premiered in 2024 at the Torpedo Theater in Amsterdam. Written and conceived by Sneed, it is a cabaret performance dedicated to the unsung Black woman founder of rock and roll. With a band, music and monologue Sneed sings, speaks and celebrates aspects of Willie Mae Thornton’s life. She won a 2023 Creative Capital award in literature as well as a 2024 NYSCA grant in poetry. Her visual work has appeared in group shows at the Ford Foundation, Company Gallery, and more.

Instagram: @pamela.sneed
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Gustaaf Peek

(The Netherlands, 1975) is a writer of novels, poems, stories, essays, and screenplays. His work is characterized by the compelling way in which he brings characters involved in historical injustices to life. His debut novel Armin (2008) is about children adrift after World War II. In Ik was Amerika (I Was America, 2010), a Dutch prisoner of war in World War II befriends a farm worker in a camp in the US. Decades later, he seeks him out again. Peek received the BNG Literature Prize and the F. Bordewijk Prize for this work. Godin, held (Goddess, Hero, 2014) is a candid novel about the mysterious and all-too-human nature of love. In his pamphlet Verzet! Pleidooi voor communisme (Resistance! A Plea for Communism, 2015), he undermines decades of capitalist indoctrination. His novel A.D. (2021) tells about the events and hardships aboard one of the first seaships in the 16th century to present-day Indonesia and the arrival there. In 2025, his poetry collection Orang/oetan was published.
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Don Mee Choi

(South Korea) is a poet and translator. She was born in Seoul, educated in the United States, and now lives in Berlin. Choi's works of documentary poetry draw on family history as well as archival material to interrogate "the overlapping histories of Korea and the U.S." In addition to her own poetry, she is a prolific translator to English of modern Korean women poets, including several books by Kim Hyesoon. Choi is the author of The Morning News Is Exciting (2010), Petite Manifesto (2014), Hardly War (2016), DMZ Colony (2020), which won the National Book Award, and Mirror Nation (2024). In it, a Mercedes wheel rim rolling down the street evokes memories of her father on the Glienicke Bridge between Berlin and Potsdam. This memory, in turn, becomes a catalyst for delving into the violent, colonial and neo-colonial history of South Korea.

Go to website Don Mee Choi
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Nadia de Vries

(The Netherlands, 1991) is a writer, poet, and cultural scientist. Her debut novel De bakvis (2022) was longlisted for the Boekenbon Literature Prize and the Libris Literature Prize, and was translated into English (Thistle, 2024). De Vries previously wrote the essay Kleinzeer (2019). In addition to her Dutch-language work, she has written several English-language poetry collections: Dark Hour (2018), I Failed to Swoon (2021), and Know Thy Audience (2023). In 2020, she obtained her PhD from the University of Amsterdam with a research project entitled Digital Corpses. For her dissertation, she researched online images of dead human bodies and the political purposes for which these images are used. She writes regularly about art for De Witte Raaf and Metropolis M, and works as an editor for nY magazine. In 2025, Overgave op commando (Surrender on Command), her second novel, and the novella Magenta were published.

Go to the website of Nadia de Vries
Instagram: @ripnadiadevries
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Saskia Bruines

(Netherlands, 1962) is The Hague's alderman for Finance, Culture and Economy. She studied social geography with a specialisation in historical geography at the University of Amsterdam and published the book Binnewaeters Gewelt, 450 jaar boezembeheer in Hollands Noorderkwartier. From 1998 to 2006, she was a member of the Amsterdam City Council and an Amsterdam alderman from 1999 to 2002. She then served as alderman of Leidschendam-Voorburg from 2012 to 2017 and as alderman of The Hague since 2017.
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Mariken Heitman

(The Netherlands, 1983) writes and works as a gardener and vegetable cultivation teacher. She has published short stories and wrote articles and essays in daily newspapers de Volkskrant, De Standaard and NRC, among others. In 2019, her debut novel De wateraap (The Water Monkey) was published, about a loner's gentle resistance to the straitjacket of convention. How do you become human, if that means being either a woman or a man? Her second novel Wormmaan (Worm Moon, 2021) was awarded the Libris Literature Prize. After setbacks at work, plant breeder Elke retreats to a Wadden Sea island with a forgotten pea variety, an androgynous crop that is difficult to control. Slowly, she realises that she shapes crops in the same way that society tries to shape her. In her novel De mierenkaravaan (The Ant Caravan, 2024), gardener Kiek discovers a hare one day. Although every living creature has its role to play, the animal threatens to disrupt the ecological balance on the farm. At the same time, a progressive disease announces itself that will irrevocably change Kiek's life.

Go to website of Mariken Heitman
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Staci Bu Shea

(USA, 1988) is multi-hyphenate in her artistic and cultural practices, and includes mostly writing, curating, facilitating, supporting, advising and teaching. Broadly, she convenes with others over aesthetic, critical, and poetic practices of social reproduction and care work, as well as its manifestations in interpersonal relationships, daily life, community organizing, and institutional practice. She is the author of Solution 305: Dying Livingly (2025), a collection of short essays written between 2021 and 2023 while completing her end-of-life care-training and starting a holistic deathcare practice. The writing reaches toward a future of compassionate, community-centered deathcare. She was curator at Casco Art Institute of Working for the Commons (Utrecht, 2017–2022) and co-curator of Barbara Hammer: Evidentiary Bodies at Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art (New York, 2017).

Go to the website of Staci Bu Shea
Instagram: @stacibushea
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Sarah Safi Harb

(Lebanon, 1989) is a Raqs Sharqi dancer and teacher. She moved to The Netherlands in 2007, started teaching her own dance classes and founded The Dance Movement in 2010, through which she enthusiastically shares the rich cultural heritage of various dance styles from the MENA region with her students. Sarah specializes in Raqs Sharqi - literally oriental dance - as it developed first in Egypt and became known in the Western world as bellydance. The Dance Movement stands for empowerment, embodiment and enjoyment through dance and movement offering bellydance group classes, mentoring and workshops in Amsterdam, The Hague and online.

Go to the website of The Dance Movement
Instagram: @sarah.safi.harb
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Tyson Hill

(Curaçao) is a writer and performer. In September 2025, Tyson presented his first poetry collection, Sigá ku glas di awa (Cigar with a glass of water), during the Wintertuin Curaçao Festival. He grew up with a love of reading and writing. After studying in the Netherlands, he returned to Curaçao and rediscovered his passion for literature in his native language, Papiamentu. Creative writing helped him to shape his identity. In this bilingual collection, written in Papiamentu and translated into Dutch by Nathania Engelhardt, Hill takes the reader on a journey through childhood, love, memory and Curaçaoan identity.

Instagram: @tej.hill
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Elvira Bonafacio

(Curaçao) is a Papiamento teacher and writer, with a passion for language and stories to shape identity and connection. Drawing on her own teaching practice, she develops learning resources that stimulate creativity and help people of all ages find their voice. Elvira is co-author of a language method for primary education and is now exploring storytelling as a bridge between learning, self-expression and rediscovery. Yen'i Brio /Met Pit (2025) is her first bilingual reading and storytelling book in both Papiamentu and Dutch. Grandfather Antoine and grandmother Yachi are at the heart of the stories: their home and garden become the place where memories, wisdom and imagination are passed on. In this way, Elvira weaves family, culture and the power of language into stories full of imagination.

Instagram: @ms.elvib
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Tuly Salumu

(Belgium, 1988) is a novelist, journalist and columnist for Flemish daily newspaper De Morgen. Her debut novel Bintje is a tragic coming-of-age story about a girl with Congolese roots living in the Belgian suburbs. Bintje, which focuses on the themes of love, domestic violence, racism, addiction and motherhood, was published in 2023. Her concise and direct language has been compared to the style of Edouard Louis. Salumu is also a highly regarded essayist and columnist. In her essay Gezocht: de zwarte genen van mijn witte zoon (Wanted: the black genes of my white son) – nominated for the Joost Zwagerman Essay Prize – Salumu describes her attempts to research her son's black identity, which symbolise her larger questions about the uncertainty and futility of colour and genes. She is currently working on her second book, a novel about romance, religion and neurodiversity.

Go to the dwebsite of Tuly Samulu
Instagram: @tulinabintou
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Roan Kasanmonadi

(1995) is a Rotterdam-based poet and spoken word artist. Alongside this, he is a trainee psychiatrist and modern dancer. In his work, he combines abstract associations with everyday language and references to pop culture. He has previously spoken for Poetry International, Mensen Zeggen Dingen and Brainwash, among others. He took part in the Paris writing residence of deBuren. In 2024, he published his debut collection Vuurbloem (Fire flower), in which he travels through a variety of landscapes - from the Rotterdam quayside to the race tracks in Mario Kart. Along the way, he describes how life can lambast you, and how you learn to pick yourself up again.

Instagram: @kasanmonadi
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Lucas Rijneveld

(The Netherlands, 1991) is a writer and poet. The first Dutch writer to do so, Rijneveld won the 2020 International Booker Prize for The Discomfort of Evening, the English translation by Michele Hutchison of his 2018 debut novel De avond is ongemak. His Kalfvlies (Calf's Membrane, 2015) won the C. Buddingh Prize for best poetry debut, was followed in 2019 by his collection Fantoommerrie (Phantom Mare). His poems are riddle-like prose stories featuring notably strong metaphors. He writes about grand themes like death and loneliness, and about his experiences as the country child who goes to study in the big city.  In 2021 he published his second novel Mijn lieve gunsteling, in which a veterinarian and a farmer's daughter develop a mutual obsessive fascination. Its English version My Heavenly Favorite was awarded the James Tait Black Prize for Fiction in 2025. His poetry collection Komijnsplitsers (Cumin Splitters, 2022) explores what it means be home: in a house, within oneself, and in relation to others.

Instagram: @lucasrijneveld
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Hiske Versprille

(The Netherlands, 1982) is a writer, culinary journalist, and poet. Since 2018, she has been writing the weekly restaurant review for Volkskrant Magazine about restaurants throughout the country, from Michelin-starred establishments to snack bars. She also regularly writes background pieces on both gastronomy and more everyday (pop) culinary phenomena such as crisps, sweets, and funeral cakes. Versprille has made several podcasts and also writes for De Groene Amsterdammer and Hard//hoofd. Above all, she is interested in how and what we eat, and all the beautiful and ugly things that happen before and after. She previously cooked in various restaurants in Amsterdam and London, and she is a graduate in ethics. She likes to call herself a principled omnivore, but she finds low-fat margarine disgusting.

Instagram: @hiskeversprille
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Sanneke van Hassel

(Netherlands, 1971) wrote six collections of short stories, inluding 2019's Nederzettingen (Settlements), as well as the novels Nest (2010) and Stille grond (Silent Ground, 2017). She won the 2008 BNG New Literature Prize for her early work and the 2013 Anna Blaman Prize for her oevre. Van Hassel also writes non-fiction and is a strong promotor of the short story genre; together with Annelies Verbeke she compiled the short-story anthology Naar de stad (Toward the City, 2012). Both her novels and short stories describe people struggling to get a grip on their lives. Van Hassel studied drama and cultural history, was a dramaturge with theatre company ’t Barre Land from 1996-2006, and is a member of the writers' collective Fixdit, which aims to raise awareness of gender inequality in literature and expand the literary canon with work by important female authors.

Go to website Sanneke van Hassel
Instagram: @sannekevanhassel
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Fester Vogels

(The Netherlands, 2000) is a writer, visual artist and co-founder of the Hague poetry collective FFûH. Their texts attempt to find recognition within alienation, with texts full of stimuli, twists and turns. Within the chaos, representation and the recovery of narratives are central to his work. They contributed work, and also served as editor and cover designer, to Zilt en Asfalt, the first collection by FFûH, which was presented with readings during the Writers Unlimited Festival 2025. Their work has also appeared in Kluger Hans and SKUT. Fester's first poetry collection, Tijgerbalsem in je Ogen - Een opeenhoping van queer, poëtisch proza (Tiger Balm in Your Eyes - An Accumulation of Queer, Poetic Prose), was published in 2024.

Instagram: @festervogels
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Beatrice Hati Gitundu

is a storyteller-scholar whose expertise sits at the crossroads of cities, people, and governance. She is a doctoral researcher at the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) of Erasmus University Rotterdam. Trained as an urban development specialist, her work bridges transformative (urban) planning, informality, grassroots innovation, disaster governance, and resilience. As a pracademic, she constantly moves between the worlds of research and practice, weaving together technical expertise, scientific knowledge, indigenous knowledge and alternative ways-of-knowing.
Bea believes cities thrive when the people who live in them are seen, heard, and meaningfully recognized. Storytelling and creative arts offer multiple possibilities to reconfigure what we know about today’s world, its past, and future(s).
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Yara Ruby

(The Netherlands) is an illustrator working in Rotterdam. Her illustrations are characterized by their cheerful colors, a light sense of humor, her playful approach and quirky and lively characters. Her work is recognizable by the use of lines; she does not hesitate and usually keeps drawing without lifting her favorite tool: the pencil. Assignments include editorial illustrations for magazines and small businesses, designs for paper goods like prints and packaging, and drawings on windows of beautiful shops. You can also find her live drawing during events such as festivals, shop openings and educational programs. She also teaches drawing and painting to children during workshops. She illustrated the children's picture books Boumy by Elma Zijderveld and Mir en de muusjes (en de mooiste mislukking ooit) by Najiba Abdellaoui.

Go to the website of Yara Ruby
Instagram: @yara_ruby
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Maddy Stolk

(The Netherlands, 1970) is a writer, columnist and second-generation child of Indonesian descent. She worked as editor-in-chief for the Dutch magazines Elle, Elsevier and Harper's Bazaar. In addition, she is active as a columnist. The family novel Soedah, laat maar (Soedah, Never Mind, 2023) is Stolk's literary debut, in which she uses her own life as the basis for a haunting novel that is simultaneously moving, hard, painful and gentle. It is a story about a life with Indonesian parents and about the never-ending grief that parents pass on to their children. Her new novel, Waar wij altijd geweest zijn (Where We Have Always Been), will be published by Ambo Anthos in January 2026. This precursor to Soedah tells of three generations: grandmother, mother and daughter, each fighting for their autonomy and for their freedom in their own way.

Go to the website of Maddy Stolk
Instagram: @maddystolk
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Rob van Essen

(The Netherlands, 1963) occupies a unique place in Dutch-language literature with his novels, nonfiction books, and stories; his oeuvre is unlike any other, evoking memories of José Saramago, Paul Auster, and J.M. Coetzee at most. He was awarded the J.M.A. Biesheuvel Prize for Hier wonen ook mensen (People Live Here Too) and the Libris Literature Prize 2019 for De goede zoon (The Good Son). His novel Miniapolis was published in October 2021. In February 2022, a reissue of Engeland is gesloten (England is Closed) from 2004 was published, and Rob van Essen made his debut as a poet in 2022 with Alleen de warme dagen waren echt (Only the Warm Days Were Real). In 2023, his novel Ik kom hier nog op terug (I'll come back to this) was published, for which he won the Libris Literature Prize again in 2024. In it, the main character is offered the chance to travel back in time in a time machine to make amends for something. It takes him back to traumatic events from his youth. Van Essen masterfully blends everyday reality with the unreal and impossible.

Instagram: @robvanessen1
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Pelumi Adejumo

(1998) is a writer and multidisciplinary artist. In 2023, she received the Frans Vogel Poetry Prize for her multilingual work. Her practice explores the relationships between multilingualism, the body, mythology and collective memory, often through sound, performance and text. She was the translator of the multimedia performance Minor Music at the End of the World, which premiered in 2025 at Internationaal Theater Amsterdam. In 2025/2026, she will be one of the participants in the MacDowell Fellowship in New Hampshire. Adejumo publishes and performs both at home and abroad. Her work has been featured in De Gids, De Groene Amsterdammer, Point de Chute, Furious Flower IV, Museum Arnhem, Kunstmuseum Den Haag, A Tale of A Tub and Savvy Contemporary, among others. She has also worked as a thesis supervisor at the Sandberg Master BlackerBlackness Studies and is active as a programmer and translator at the international literature festival Read My World.

Instagram: @pelumiadejumo
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Özcan Akyol

(The Netherlands, 1984), also known as Eus, is a writer, columnist, and presenter. His semi-autobiographical and critically acclaimed picaresque novel Eus (2012) is about a Turkish teenager from the east of the country who tries to escape his fate as a marginal figure in an unorthodox way. He also wrote the novels Turis (2016) and Afslag 23 (2023) and recently the short story collection Mijn moeder, de kleine reus (2025): bestsellers that appealed to both young and older audiences. Eus is also a columnist for various newspapers and magazines, and a television presenter with successful programmes such as De Neven van Eus, Sterren op het Doek, De Geknipte Gast, Home of Eus, and Eus’ Boekenclub. He will be performing his theater show De Klassenmigrant until mid-2026. In addition to being a personal retrospective, it is also a plea for equal opportunities and cultural development.

Go to the website of Özcan Akyol
Instagram: @ozcanakyol
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Sophie Jansen

(1991) is Head of Programming at Filmhuis Den Haag. Her love of film began with Titanic, gained momentum with Keira Knightley costume dramas, and was sealed after discovering the work of Sofia Coppola, about whose authorship she wrote her first thesis. Her master's thesis was about patriarchal structures in high school films, a subgenre that remains a favourite. Feminist films, coming-of-age films, music films and films about fashion are her specialisations. Sophie's feminist perspective is evident in everything she writes, narrates and programmes.
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Nadia Moussaid

(The Netherlands), 1984) is a journalist, programme maker and presenter. She graduated in social and cultural anthropology from the University of Amsterdam in 2009 with a thesis on the position of Arab women in the world. In 2010, she became an editor at MNTL and VPRO; in 2012-2013, she worked as an editor and presenter at AT5, mainly for the programme De Stelling van Amsterdam. In 2016-2018, she presented the NPO 2 talk show De Nieuwe Maan. Since 2019, she has presented programmes such as Bureau Buitenland (Radio 1/NPO 2), the cultural talk show Mondo (NPO 2), the talk show Op1 (NPO 1) and the late-night talk show Nadia (NPO 1). For the VPRO documentary Getuigen van Gaza (Witnesses of Gaza, 2025), she interviewed Gazans who fled to Cairo and Amsterdam, as well as international experts.

Instagram: @_nadiamoussaid
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Rachida Lamrabet

(Morocco, 1970) is a fiction and theatre author, lawyer and teacher. She won the 2008 Flemish debut prize for her novel Vrouwland (Women's Country; 2007) about migrant youths dreaming of a better life. In 2006, her story Mercedes 207 was awarded the Kif Kif Literature Prize. Her short story collection Een kind van God (A Child of God) was published in 2008, followed by the novel De man die niet begraven wilde worden (The Man Who Didn't Want to be Buried), awarded with the Ultima, the Flemish state prize for culture. As in her debut, issues such as identity, religion, migration and the position of minorities play an important role. Her novel Vertel het iemand (Tell Somebody, 2018) deals with the life of a Berber boy and the deliberately concealed role played by Moroccan soldiers in the First World War. Lamrabet is a member of the writers' collective Fixdit, which aims to raise awareness of gender inequality in literature. She is a practice assistant in discrimination law at the Legal Clinic of the Law Faculty of the Ghent University and also teaches at the Odisee College in Brussels.
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Zoya Miari

(Lebanon, 1999) is a Palestinian-Ukrainian Peace Ambassador and Storyteller. Her life journey has given her a unique perspective, having experienced two wars and becoming a refugee twice. Through these experiences, she discovered the transformative power of storytelling and the ability of individuals to shape their own narratives and the world around them. To share this vision, Zoya founded Waves to Home, a global movement aimed at changing the world through personal & collective stories. She is currently writing her fi rst book, sharing her story as a message of hope and inner freedom. Zoya aspires to become a Positive Psychologist to help others create meaningful lives despite the traumas they have been through and guiding them towards healing.

Instagram: @zoyamiari
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Wasim Arslan

(Syria) is a singer and songwriter from Aleppo. His soulful voice is known for reaching people’s hearts. Having faced the atrocities of war, Wasim has experienced both the light and the dark side of life. His poetry and melodies speak of these two forces and the search for freedom, spreading a message of unity. Wasim’s music is diverse, ranging from ballads to dance music, acoustic, electronic, traditional and folk music, working together with musicians from different cultures. Wasim feels a responsibility to keep the Syrian culture and traditions alive, which led him to organise cultural events in The Netherlands. He collaborated in 2024 with Cappella Amsterdam, creating the show Aleppo, telling the story of the city and its history of music. The show toured to theatres in The Netherlands and Belgium and was broadcast on NPO Klassiek and Radio Klara.

Go to the YouTube channel of Wasim Arslan
Instagram @wasimarslan
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Naomi Kok Luís

is a programme maker and interviewer who, with her curious mind and open style, creates space for conversations that touch and surprise. At The School of Life in Amsterdam, she develops and presents programmes featuring insights from philosophy, psychology and art. She has interviewed leading thinkers and writers such as Gabor Maté, Glenn Helberg and Roxane van Iperen. With a master's degree in Intercultural Communication, she examines topics from multiple perspectives in order to arrive at new insights.

Instagram: @naomilouize
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Lila Maria De Coninck

(2004, she/them) writes texts, performances and music. She is graduating this year from the ArtScience Interfaculty in The Hague. Her work deals with and simulates both the confusion inherent in multilingualism and self-taught learning, as well as the miscommunication that comes with it. Through experimental translations and writing experiments, she explores how an incorrect (interpretation of) speech simultaneously deconstructs and renews the language and the reality it describes. She works with alienation to make the reader, viewer or listener think about the underlying systems of meaning and nuances of their language use.

Instagram: @whothehellislila
Lila Maria De Coninck on SoundCloud
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Lies Kelder

(1998) comes from Rotterdam and works in Amsterdam. Lies combined her studies at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy with academic degrees in public administration, Dutch literature and philosophy. Through collage and deconstruction processes, she explores the visual and imaginative elements of text. In addition to being a writer and artist, she is an editor at the literary magazine SKUT, where other work by her can also be found. She will be reading from her work included in the FFÛH anthology Omhoog slaan, which will be presented during the Writers Unlimited Festival 2026.

Instagram: @kelderlies
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Robbie Wallin

(The Netherlands) is a versatile artist, musician and theatre maker. His theatre solo Bakfiets was a show about social issues such as racism, gentrification, police violence and politics. Together with Luan Buleshkaj and Guilliano Herdigein, he performed the show Godenzonen for several years, a mix of music, cabaret, comedy and spoken word. Robbie directed a group of young actors in Donnie, a raw retelling by Poldertheater and the Dutch National Opera of Mozart's Don Giovanni. The performance can be seen in theatres until February 2026. Together with Joshua Sabajo, he performs as Josh&Robs: a duo that switches freely between rap, hip hop, storytelling and spoken word.

Instagram: @manvandebuurt
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Pamela Durán Díaz

is a Senior Planning and Governance Specialist and lecturer at the Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS), Erasmus University Rotterdam. She is an architect with a PhD in Urbanism focusing on sustainable land and urban governance. With professional and academic experience in more than 60 countries, she bridges spatial planning, policy, and community resilience through participatory and evidence-based approaches. Her research focuses on participatory governance, Nature-Based Solutions, heritage, and decolonisation of Indigenous and local knowledge. Pamela is also a storyteller—she weaves narrative into her teaching, public talks, and research communication to make complex governance challenges tangible and human. Through human- and environment-centred narratives, she seeks to connect data with empathy and transform understanding into action.
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Matthijs Sluiter

is a graphic designer. As Studio Het Mes, he designs identities, websites, books and logos for cultural and knowledge organisations. He is also an editor at typography website Fonts In Use, writes about design for Fontstand News and collects and shares type specimens on Mastodon. During the Writers Unlimited International Literature Festival in The Hague, he will be subtitling the readings of Stem van de Stad (Voice of the City), the programme in which schoolchildren recite their Very Short Stories, with words and images in the foyer of Theater aan het Spui on Friday and Saturday evenings.

Go to the website of Studio Het Mes
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Mira Feticu

(Romania, 1973) is a writer, poet and columnist. Her first collection of poetry was published in 1993, after which she devoted herself to prose. In 2005, she moved to The Hague with her Dutch husband André. There she decided to write in Dutch rather than Romanian. In her novels, she has successfully developed a personal and candid writing style. Her publications include Lief kind van mij (My Dear Child, 2012), De ziekte van Kortjakje (Kortjakje's Illness, 2013), Tascha. De roof uit de Kunsthal (Tascha: The Robbery at the Kunsthal, 2015), Al mijn vaders en Picasso's keerzijde (All My Fathers and Picasso's Other Side, 2019), and Liefdesverklaring aan de Nederlandse taal (Declaration of Love to the Dutch Language, 2021). After the loss of André, she wrote her latest novel Gewone Hollandse jongens (Ordinary Dutch Boys, 2025) about grief, physical desire and the search for stability in the company of others. Her articles and columns appear in Tirade, De Groene Amsterdammer and Den Haag Centraal, among others.

Go to the website of Mira Feticu
Instagram: @mirafeticu
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KEKE

is a Colombian singer-songwriter and international performer passionate about Latin rhythms. Under the stage name KEKE, Keren Paternina sings pop, rock or jazz, and specialises in performing bolero, ballads, salsa and bachata, among other genres. She and versatile musician and pianist Nicolás Quiroga will play together as Vibra Latina Duo at the Storytelling Program at ISS as part of the Writers Unlimited International Literature Festival The Hague 2026.

Instagram: @keke.music
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Agata Luisa Dohne

(Frankfurt am Main, 2002) is a writer and visual artist based in The Hague. In her texts, she explores themes such as femininity, the existence and non-existence of a body, and how best to portray a mouse in everyday life. She studies at the Royal Academy of Art, where she allows her textual research to resonate in her painting, textile and sculpture work, among other things. Since 2025, she has been part of the organisation behind the Hague poets' collective FFûH, with which her work was published earlier that year in the collection Zilt en Asfalt (Salt and Asphalt).
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Bianca Tudorache

(2003) is approaching the end of an era called Bachelor's in European Studies at The Hague University of Applied Sciences. Over the past 4 years, she ventured from diplomacy to political journalism, and now she is active in project management with the phenomenal events team that The Lighthouse is: "Since day one, they have embraced my need for versatility by virtue of the many things I had to learn during the internship. I am thrilled to be conducting my very first author interview, and even more thrilled to be doing it with Sheena Patel. From what I have covered so far, the book beautifully encapsulates complex systemic issues within a bold, seemingly light-hearted narrative, complemented by comic aphorisms. In a nutshell, it's no surprise the mini-blogs made it so quickly to the British Book Awards. I'm already a true fan of Patel's book I'm a Fan, and...you should be next."
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Iris Kater Mirsalari

(1997) is a Dutch language and literature scholar and philosopher. She works at Bookshop Het Martyrium in Amsterdam and provides support services for the feminist writers' collective Fixdit.
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Melisa Diktaş

(The Netherlands) is a dancer of Kurdish and Indonesian descent, born in the Netherlands. She works as a performer in theatrical productions, collaborating with a wide range of companies, choreographers, poets and events. Her solo performances, collaborations and creative processes are rooted in her unique movement dialect and personal worldview, which reflect her beliefs and cultural background. Melisa approaches the creative process from a deep connection with her origins and vision that ‘everything that moves dances’. Her work explores both what connects us and what distinguishes us.
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Nicolás Quiroga

is an Argentinian pianist, percussionist, and curious multi-instrumentalist who loves exploring sounds and creating melodies that “massage the soul.” He and singer-songwriter KEKE will play together as Vibra Latina Duo at the Storytelling Program at ISS as part of the Writers Unlimited International Literature Festival The Hague 2026.

Instagram: @mixwithnico
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Bart Jeroen Kiers

is digital dude, unpaid corporate pastor and all-round meddler at publisher Atlas Contact. Also director and producer of the podcast Van Dis Ongefilterd.
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plonki

is the solo project of musical multi-talent Pleun Stork, who participated in the Popronde as 3voor12 Talent in the autumn of 2025. 3voor12 writes about her: 'What do you expect from the name plonki? Beautiful, raw indie may not be on your list, but that's exactly what Pleun Stork's solo project is. She has played in bands such as THAMES, Fuzzy Teeth and Tape Toy, but the idea of starting a new project kept nagging at her. And you can hear that urge in the emotional and, above all, personal guitar songs on her debut EP kicking at my heels. Think of the rawness of Big Thief and the psychedelia of Unknown Mortal Orchestra, but actually completely unique.' In December 2025, she received the Music Support Award for the most talented act in The Hague's music scene during the 25th Hague Pop Gala.
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Xillan Macrooy

(1993, Paramaribo) is a storyteller in literature, theatre and music. He moves between different disciplines, celebrating his identity as a shapeshifter. As the son of multiple worlds, the constant transformation of identity plays an important role in his work. His debut novel, Mensen als zonnen en mensen als manen (People Like Suns and People Like Moons), was published in September 2025. It tells the story of growing up as a Black queer boy in Suriname and how notions of masculinity influence an individual's life. He is currently touring theatres with his show A COMING OF (R)AGE RITUAL. His debut album SON will follow later this year.
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Bruno Ferro Xavier da Silva

(Portugal, 1977) is a musician and illustrator. He took piano lessons, studied at the Willem de Kooning Academy and eventually preferred the bass guitar. He uses it in combination with a bow, samples and electronic effects. Bruno has performed solo and with many bands and artists at home and abroad. He has collaborated with artists such as Elliott Sharp, Pierre Bastien, Jack Parow, DJ Grazzhoppa's Big Band, Akira Sakata, Kato Hideki, Niti Ranjan Biswas and Oene Van Geel. In 2011, he won the Jur Neasens Music Prize audience award with his band Ventriloquism. He played at the Lowlands festival, was the opening act for Tricky and Bush in Rotterdam and toured the United Kingdom, Germany, Russia and Japan.
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The Soulslammer

has made a name for himself as Frank-E, resident DJ at Paard in The Hague. He rocked Lowlands, is the godfather of Grooveyard, and Mr Rare Grooves. His funk parties became famous under the name The Funk Syndicate. As Soulslammer, he returns to his roots. He is a major vinyl collector and part of the DJ collective Tabass-co.

Go to the website of DJ Collective Tabass-co here.
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Gerlinda Heywegen

(1968) is a programmer, writer, organizer, lecturer and podcaster, mainly on the subject of film and often in combination with literature. Koning Film is the collective of speakers on film that she established. Heywegen's books include The Other Director, about directors of photography; she collaborated with Frans Westra on Passie voor Cinema (Passion for Cinema), which highlights four decades of film screenings in the Netherlands; and she edited and wrote for the film magazine Skrien. Currently, she writes regularly for the websites of the Netherlands Society of Cinematographers and literary magazine Elders.
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Laura Broekhuysen

(1983) studied violin at the Conservatory of Amsterdam and Writing for Performance at the theatre faculty in Utrecht. In the same week that she graduated as a violinist, her debut novel Twee linkerlaarzen (Two Left Boots, 2008) was published. This was followed in 2011 by Hellend vlak (Sloping Surface), a novel set in Iceland's Westfjords. Laura wrote about her integration in Iceland in the books Winter-IJsland, mijn eerste jaar in een verlaten fjord (Winter Iceland, My First Year in a Deserted Fjord, 2016) and Flessenpost uit Reykjavik (Message in a Bottle from Reykjavik, 2019). Her first collection of poetry, Wij capabelen (We Capables), was published in 2022. In the novel Magnetisch middernacht (Magnetic Midnight), which won her 2025 F. Bordewijk Prize – annual prize for the best Dutch-language prose book – she incorporated stories from the Old Icelandic Edda. Laura Broekhuysen works as a violin teacher in Reykjavik.

Go to Laura Broekhuysen's website here.
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Jowi Schmitz

(1972) writes books for both adults and children, as well as articles for Trouw, among others. She started with two novels for adults, Leopold and Kus van je zus, and in 2012 published her first children's book, Ik heet Olivia en daar kan ik ook niks aan doen, which was awarded the Vlag en Wimpel and the German Luchs Preise. A year later, the children's thriller Schat onder de stad (Treasure under the City) was published. She then wrote the book Te vroeg geboren. Dagboek over mijn zoon (Born Too Early: Diary about my Son), which won the 2014 Inktslaafliteratuurprijs, and Nooit nooit nooit meer aan de wal (Never Ever Again on Shore), a non-fiction book about the remarkable boat dwellers of Amsterdam. She wrote the Young Adult books Weg (Gone, 2016, Dioraphte Literature Prize), Beste broers (Best Brothers, 2020, Zilveren Griffel), Slipjacht (Slip Hunt, 2022) and IJsnacht (Ice Night, 2025), among others. Jowi Schmitz has been awarded the Nienke van Hichtum Prize 2025 for her young adult novel Kip op je kop (Chicken on your head).

Visit Jowi Schmitz's website here.
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Mye_Taai

are a rave club punk duo+1. The work of interdisciplinary artist collective Mye_Taai moves between electronic sound, performance and visual art. Observations of real talk with bits of their own. Empowered by stories, told through grim basement rave club tunes. Join the queue of the “Rave Club For Two" and try to get in there. Have a right laugh together or go home.

Go the website of Mye_Taai here
Instagram: @mye_taai
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Lisa Weeda

(Rotterdam, 1989) is a Dutch-Ukrainian writer, literary programme maker, theatre maker and VR director. Her debut novel Aleksandra was published in 2021. Her grandmother is the central character in the story. She sends the main character Lisa to the Donbas to bring a cloth to the grave of her murdered uncle Kolya. In 2024, Dans Dans Revolutie (Dance Dance Revolution) was published, a novel in which Weeda tackles the issue of looking away from and looking at war in four storylines. The immersive theatre installation of the same name, Dans Dans Revolutie, won the Designers' Prize at the Dutch Theatre Festival in 2025. In Het archief Jilles - brief aan mijn grootvader (The Jilles Archive - Letter to My Grandfather, 2025), she describes how an archive discovery brings a loved one closer. Together with Teddy Tops, she compiled J'accuse (2025), a collection of texts by forty Dutch, Flemish and international writers who speak out against the erasure of the Palestinians. Lisa's work has been translated in eight countries.

Go to the website of Lisa Weeda here
Instagram: @lisa_weeda
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Maarten van Munster

is a senior lecturer in human rights at The Hague University of Applied Sciences and a PhD researcher focusing on the development of Angola’s reconciliation process since the end of the civil war. His research examines both everyday, informal forms of reconciliation and the ways in which reconciliation is pursued within formal political frameworks. In 2025, he published on Angola’s reconciliation commission, established in 2019, as well as on public perceptions of the commission, paying particular attention to the tension between official reconciliation initiatives and local experiences. His work is based on fieldwork in Angola, where he has also been a guest lecturer. Maarten works at the intersection of academic research, education, and public debate on post-conflict societies.


Read articles by Maarten van Munster and Joris van Wijk about the Angola's Reconciliation Commission here:

Maarten van Munster, Joris van Wijk, 'Angola’s Reconciliation Commission CIVICOP: Delayed Transitional Justice in a Non-Transitional Authoritarian Context', International Journal of Transitional Justice, 27 February 2025.

Maarten van Munster, Joris van Wijk, 'Public perception of transitional justice in Angola: examining CIVICOP's Outreach efforts and its perceived legitimacy', The International Journal of Human Rights, 6 August 2025.
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Moniek Merkx

is a freelance director, writer, teacher and dramaturge. Until 2021, she was artistic director of Maas theatre and dance in Rotterdam. She works for a large number of theatre and mime companies in the Netherlands and abroad. Merkx wrote Eerste hulp bij theater (First Aid for Theatre) together with Jowi Schmitz and Dorien Folkers. Her work is associative, visual and musical. Her well-known theatre titles include: Blauw of iets voor aan de muur (Blue or Something for the Wall), Maanvirus (Moon Virus), De verschrikkelijke stiefmoedershow (The Terrible Stepmother Show), Alleen op de wereld (Alone in the World), Help, Staal, Once upon the Forest, City of Dreams, Voorjaarsoffer (Spring Sacrifice), Liefde (Love), Hallo familie (Hello Family), Lampje (Little Light), Zinderella, LOVEXL and Die Schneekonigin (The Snow Queen). For her work, she has received several youth theatre awards in the Netherlands (Hans Snoek Prize, 1000Watt Prize, Gouden/Zilveren Krekels, Podiumkids Prize) and the VSCD Mime Prize. In the US, she won the Tony Award together with The Children's Theatre Company in Minneapolis. In 2021, Moniek became a member of the Academy of Arts (part of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, KNAW).
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Sascha Luinenburg

(1994, he/him) writes poetry and prose. His work has been published by Perdu and in Seizoenszine, among others. In 2025, he published the chapbook Grafietstreep. He also creates art and organises literary events as a member of the art collective ROEM. He is tired but undaunted. In 2026, his poems appears in the collection Omhoog slaan by the young poets' collective FFÛH in The Hague.
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Babs Gons

(1971) is a writer, performer, columnist and host, and was the Poet Laureate of the Netherlands from 2023 to 2025. She has been a driving force behind numerous poetry stage initiatives for decades. Gons made her debut in 2021 with her poetry collection Doe het toch maar (Just do it). In 2022, she won De Johnny, a lifetime achievement award for stage poetry, and in 2024 she was awarded the Gouden Ganzenveer. She presents various programmes and is the host of the musical-literary show Babs' Woordsalon.

Instagram: @babsgons
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Mark Nieuwenhuis

(1981) plays trumpet, composes and produces various styles of music. As a trumpet player, he plays in bands, with DJs and as a solo artist. He has played on countless stages at home and abroad, such as at Lowlands, Concertgebouw, Extrema Outdoor, Paradiso, Oerol and Mawazine Festival (Morocco). He composes on commission for film, television and theatre, as well as autonomously for ensembles and orchestras. He has collaborated with Sizzer Amsterdam, Nederlands Blazers Ensemble, Born Digital and Theatergroep Gehring and Ketelaars, among others.
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Teddy Tops

is a presenter, interviewer, writer and programme maker, affiliated with NPO Radio 1 and VPRO, among others. For programmes such as the Marathoninterview, Nooit Meer Slapen and her own programme Een Uur Cultuur, Tops interviews a wide range of guests. She organises festivals, evenings and club nights, and runs the spoken word platform Mensen Zeggen Dingen. In Egelskop (2025), her debut novel, two women are at the age to marry and start a family. Then the unnamed narrator, who grows up several decades later in a time when possibilities seem endless, decides to take control of the story and rewrite the history of her two grandmothers. Together with Lisa Weeda, she compiled J'accuse (2025), a collection of texts by forty Dutch, Flemish and international writers who speak out against the erasure of the Palestinians. She was voted Literary Talent of the Year 2026 by Dutch national daily newspaper de Volkskrant.
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Clarice Gargard

(USA, 1988) is a journalist, writer and documentary maker. She worked as a columnist for NRC and as a Resistance Correspondent for De Correspondent. She has also worked as an editor and presenter at AT5, BNNVARA (Joop), Vrij Nederland, Vogue and Harpers Bazaar. Together with Hasna El Maroudi, Gargard is the founder of the feminist journalism platform Lilith Magazine. She is also co-founder of the LGBTI+ organisation Black Pride NL. The documentary Daddy and the Warlord, about her father and the Liberian civil wars, which she made in collaboration with Shamira Raphaëla, won a Gouden Kalf for Best Short Documentary in 2019. Gargard's book Drakendochter (Dragon Daughter) is about her family history, migration, politics and society. In 2022, her documentary Ga terug en haal het (VPRO) about the timelessness of black resistance in the Netherlands, Suriname and Curaçao was released. Her book Na verzet komt (r)evolutie (2025, also published in English as From Resistance to (R)evolution) is about how to unleash a personal and social (r)evolution.

Go to the website of Clarice Gargard here
Instagram: @claricegargard
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Nana Adjoa

(The Netherlands, 1991) is a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. She creates exciting, dreamy, soulful songs with electronic elements from trip hop and compact poetic lyrics. Nana was exposed to music at an early age in the Dutch-Ghanaian church and at home, including Ghanaian highlife, soul, R&B and reggae. She became a bass guitarist around the age of ten and later studied at the Conservatoire of Amsterdam. After years as a bass guitarist in the bands A Polaroid View and Sue the Night, and shows with singer Janne Schra, she decided to continue as a solo artist. This proved successful, as she performed in the US and in the Netherlands at Pinkpop, Best Kept Secret and Eurosonic, among others. De Volkskrant newspaper named her Pop Talent of the Year 2021.

Instagram: @nanaadjoamusic
Go to the website of Nana Adjoa
Go to Nana Adjoa's Spotify
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Alejandra Ortiz

is a trans woman refugee from Mexico who fled transphobia and violence. In The Netherlands she works toward a better life for trans persons, and especially for trans persons of colour -- with or without papers. She has established a language centre, organized symposiums and co-authored research reports, all to improve the position of trans refugees. She received the 2023 Winq Community Award for her work and the Harper's Bazaar Woman of the Year Award 2024, Ortiz wrote the autobiographical De waarheid zal me bevrijden (The Truth Will Free Me, 2022) about her youth, her life as a transgender woman, her quest for a safe place to be herself, and her asylum application process in The Netherlands. It was selected as one of ten  Dutch rainbow-books, and was nominated for the Opzij Literatuurprijs 2023.
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Ciconia Consort

performs during Uitreiking Haagse Literatuurprijzen at the Writers Unlimited Festival 2026 with four musicians (violin: Stephan Nieuwesteeg and Novilė Maceinaite; viola: Kardelen Buruk; cello: Beste Yildiz). They will play the Armenian traditional dance music Erzurumi Shoror and the movements Indi Mindi and Hirtentanz from Miniatures for string quartet on Georgian folk themes (1961) by Sulkhan Tsintsadze. Ciconia Consort – The Hague String Orchestra is an international ensemble of 20 young top musicians led by Dick van Gasteren. This contemporary ensemble distinguishes itself through thematic programmes, a focus on forgotten repertoire and collaborations with a wide range of artists and scientists. Ciconia has released five acclaimed CDs, which can be heard worldwide. Ciconia's latest album, Couleurs de France, was released at the end of 2025. Luister wrote: ‘The love with which the Ciconias perform the pieces is heart-warming.’ Klassieke Zaken: ‘A spectacular ensemble, meticulous in every detail.’
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Valérie Drost

is director-director of the Literatuurmuseum/Kinderboekenmuseum, chairman of the Jan Campert Foundation and secretary of the P.C. Hooft Prize for Literature Foundation. The Literatuurmuseum/Kinderboekenmuseum, where Drost has been director since 2024, is a vibrant family museum that attracts 150,000 visitors annually. Besides family museum, it is also the place where national literary heritage from 1750 to the present is kept and preserved. The (national) museum makes its archives available for research and also, thanks to the online museum LiteratuurLab, new generations are introduced to our literary past.
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Anu Soerjoesing

is one of the two Young City Poets of The Hague 2025. Her winning poem ‘Ik weet’ (I know) was the deciding factor in the final. The final of the secondary school competition, an initiative of the Municipality of The Hague, Bibliotheek Den Haag, Huis van Gedichten and het Literatuurmuseum/Kinderboekenmuseum, took place at the end of January 2025 during Nationale Gedichtendag (National Poetry Day) in the Centrale Bibliotheek. The two Young City Poets will have a year-long platform at important and topical events in The Hague. In this way, they inspire children and young people to engage more with language and create connections within the city.
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Nina Duijs

(2005, they/their) work spans various disciplines. Originally from Nijmegen, they completed the Creative Contemporary Dancer programme in Arnhem. Now living in Utrecht, they enjoy working in the performing arts. As a writer, Nina focuses on expressing their inner world, playing with the meaning of words. Their poems have been published in the collection Omhoog slaan (2026) by the Hague-based young poets' collective FFÛH.
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Govert van de Velde

is one of the two Young City Poets of The Hague 2025. His winning poem ‘Wat is Den Haag of beter wie is Den Haag’ (What is The Hague, or rather, who is The Hague) was the deciding factor in the final. The final of the secondary school competition, an initiative of the Municipality of The Hague, Bibliotheek Den Haag, Huis van Gedichten and het Literatuurmuseum/Kinderboekenmuseum, took place at the end of January 2025 during Nationale Gedichtendag (National Poetry Day) in the Centrale Bibliotheek. The two Young City Poets will have a year-long platform at important and topical events in The Hague. In this way, they inspire children and young people to engage more with language and create connections within the city.
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Emma Wiersma

(1998, she/her) writes about art and as art. Works for West Den Haag and writes art reviews and reflections for Metropolis M, Mister Motley, Tubelight, and others. Seeks poems in and beyond language. Strings together a chain of rabbit droppings. Her poems have been published in the collection Omhoog slaan (2026) by The Hague-based young poets collective FFÛH.
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Louise van der Veen

(2000, she/her) is a poet and studied both clinical technology and philosophy. In her poetry – but also in her research master's degree in cognitive neuroscience – she explores the brain, perception and imagination. In her creative oeuvre, humans and their brains are constantly placed in new contexts in order to question the interplay between alienation and connection with oneself, others and the environment. According to her, everything is a little strange, as long as you look at it closely enough. Her poems have been published in Elders Literair, Hard//hoofd and in the collection Omhoog slaan by The Hague's young poets collective FFÛH. Together with Bart Lanser and Tara Zagorac, she forms the poetry band Wildgroei.
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Douwe Hovingh

(2002, he/him) is a writer and tinkerer. His work ranges from idyllic and classical to the dirty, filthy alleys of jazz-half-rhyme-sound poetry, limping and rhythmic footwork. He loves the Beat Poets and prefers to keep his sources secret. His poems have been published in the collection Omhoog slaan (2026) by the young poets' collective FFÛH in The Hague.
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E.W. Claassen

(2001, he/him) is a budding artist and writer. He attempts to create art and entertainment out of frustration and setbacks. His work seeks to turn the grave into a rabbit hole and make the dark ocean boil and bubble. All while searching for recognition, connection and a little bit of hopelessness. In 2026, his poems will be published in the collection Omhoog slaan by the young poets' collective FFÛH in The Hague.
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RosCRosa

is the pen name of Roos Cornelissen (2005, he/him). Roos is from Nijmegen (!!) and is currently studying Writing for Performance at the HKU. For Roos, writing is often a way of making his ideas tangible. Hopefully, this creates a connection: “look, I think/feel this, what do you think/feel?”. In 2026, his poems will be published in the collection Omhoog slaan by the young poets' collective FFÛH in The Hague.
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Anke van Oostveen

(1978, she/her) is a young writer. Until recently, she thought that the other person was the writer. In her writing, she questions the reliability of memories. She considers them a form of time experience and explores how we can never see ourselves as others see us. She finds it both pleasant and difficult that we exist in different versions of ourselves. In another life, she is a registrar, volunteers at a hospice and helps people with their work. She worked for a while at an onion-cutting factory in The Hague and yes, onions make her cry. In 2026, her poems will be published in the collection Omhoog slaan by the young poets' collective FFÛH in The Hague.
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Jady van Zijl

(2000) studied philosophy in Tilburg. Their view of poetry is that it is the place where language is used to strip language of itself. Poetry's job is to show the ambivalence of speaking thought and then to let it collapse into itself, thereby wresting it from its own purpose. His poetry was published in the first collection by The Hague's young poets collective FFÛH, titled Zilt en asfalt (2025).
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Tessel ten Zweege

(The Netherlands, 1998) is a writer and programme maker. She previously wrote Dat zou jij nooit toelaten (You Would Never Allow That) and Femicide, developed and presented the TV series Tessel In Cyberspace for NPO3, and directed the documentary De Feministen van Nu (The Feminists of Today). Her debut novel, Lik, will be published in Spring 2026.
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Anna Krijger

(The Netherlands, 1984) is a journalist and writer. Since 2023, she has also been a politician for the Partij voor de Dieren (PvdD, Party for the Animals). She studied Arabic language and culture and lived as a freelance correspondent in Tel Aviv and East Jerusalem. In 2017, she made her debut with Hipsters, Beards, Martyrs: Encounters in Israel and Palestine. Her new book, Geen mens meer in Gaza (No More People in Gaza), will be published in February 2026. For this book, she spoke with Palestinians, Israelis and Dutch people about humanity and “the other”.

Instagram: @anna.krijger
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