(Amsterdam, NL 1953) is an evolutionary biologist and a writer. In his essays he presents himself as the missing link between the arts and the sciences. Again and again he places science in a broader cultural framework. In his collections of essays Vis in Bad (Fish in the Bath, 2014) and Kloten van de engel (Angels' Balls; 2007) he shows that culture is often much more natural than we think. In september 2016 a collection of his essays, The Other Left Side will be published by Seven Stories Press in New York. After graduation Goldschmidt left for Tanzania for five years to study cichlids (Percidae) in Lake Victoria. That study resulted in a Ph.D. thesis and a book combining his scientific findings with personal experiences: Darwin's Dreampond (1994). This debut was translated in English, French, German, Japanese and Chinese, among others. In 1993 Goldschmidt decided to give up his academic career to become a fulltime writer. In 2007 he delivered the Huizinga Lecture in Leiden entitled Pretending to pretend. Since 2009, Tijs Goldschmidt is advisor to the State Academy of Fine Arts in Amsterdam.

(Syria, 1930), the favourite poet of Rotterdam's Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb, is considered a contender for the Nobel Prize for Literature. After studying philosophy in Damascus, he moved to Beirut and then Paris. His most famous volume, The Songs of Mihyar of Damascus, was published in 1961. His poems, essays, letters and interviews are often translated, especially into French. He broke with the formal structure of Arabic poetry and experimented with free verse and prose poems. In Arabic, Adonis wrote: "To write poetry in this language [...] means to unveil the invisible and reveal the abyss of absence that that distinguishes us from the unseen." In his work, he distances himself from Islam but holds up a mirror to the West, which fails to honour its thinkers and poets an thereby stands in the way of mutual understanding between East and West. His first anthology of work translated into Dutch, Wat blijft (What Remains), will come out during the festival.

(Geldrop, NL, 1979) debuted in 2010 with De eerste hond in de ruimte (The First Dog in Space), tales of young people on all-night techno and drug binges that broaches themes of loneliness, addition and relationships. These collected stories had previously appeared in the Flemish literary magazine DW B. His second book Het licht (The Light, 2012), which made the Golden Book-Owl prize longlist, again focused on a group of friends who listen to music, experiment with drugs and sex, and endlessly keep up with social media until their lives are disrupted by a series of suicides. His 2014 poetry debut, Niemand had er enig idee van wat er aan de hand was (No One Had Any Idea What Was Going On), was nominated for the C. Buddingh Prize. Van Rooij's poems tend to conjure an uneasy, tense atmosphere via out-of-context quotes, showing a world that repeatedly defies our plans and expectations.

(Belgium, 1982) debuted in 2014 with her poetry collection Deze zachte witte kamer (This Soft White Room), which won the Herman De Coninck debut prize and was nominated for the C. Buddingh Prize. She does regular readings and organizes small poetry festivals. For her, poetry is "a means to exercise control over what is uncontrollable, with a pen for a weapon and my magnifying glass for a shield." She writes about everything: "what I read in magazines about psychology and science, or something I saw, a man in a suit and yellow sneakers... Yet mainly it's people who inspire me: weaknesses and neuroses, beauty in ugliness: the death of my father, and the fact that my daughter's fingernails have the same shape as his did." In her book and on her website, Svetlikova pays a lot of attention to design. Not surprisingly: besides language and literature, she also studied graphic design.

(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

(Morocco, 1973) is a journalist, columnist, translator, researcher and producer. She publishes in various media (including Dutch national daily newspaper NRC and women's magazine Linda); runs her own online magazine for culture lovers, Aicha Qandisha. She compiled a story collection about Arab women, Achter de sluier (Behind the Veil, 1999); 2013 saw the publication of her book Arabieren kijken (Looking at Arabs), about "ordinary" people in the Arab world. She made TV programs for various broadcasters, including the documentary series Seks en de Zonde (Sex and Sin). Together with Michelin-starred chef Soenil Bahadoer, she wrote the culinary books Spicy Chef (2020) and Streetfood (2022). She published two further books in 2022: Een koffer vol citroenen (A Suitcase Full of Lemons), a requiem for and portrait of her mother, and Arbeidsmigranten in Nederland (Migrant Labourers in the Netherlands).

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

(Netherlands, 1958) has produced and presented the VPRO radio programme OVT since 2002, a two-hour show about the historical roots of current events as well as newly released historical books, films, commemorations, and anything else related to history. The show features live interviews, reportage, columns and a weekly documentary during the last half hour. He was already linked to OVT since 1992 as a programmer and previously freelanced for other national Dutch broadcasters such as VARA and IKON.

(Belgium, 1963) is a journalist, philosopher, and literature and theatre scholar. She has interviewed many big names from the art world for Belgian public television, and was the jury chairwoman of the Golden Owl prize from 2000 to 2006. She has written for newspapers and magazines such as De Morgen and De Standaard, and Knack, Humo and Vrij Nederland. For a commission from the Flanders and Klara festivals, she reworked a reportage into an opera libretto. She is a core contributor to the "living books programme" Uitgelezen, and was a visiting professor of art philosophy at The School of Arts in Gent. As a writer-in-residence in Bucharest she wrote De weg van de mier (The Way of the Ant), about a Romanian chauffeur who misses his lover, who fled the Ceaucescu regime. She makes IM (In Memoriam) for the Flemish-Dutch Huis de Buren institute, a multi-year series in which talks to well-known people about how they'd like to be remembered.

(1973) won the Bronze Owl for Muidhond in October 2015. This debut novel about a young pedophile named Jonathan received many four- and five-star reviews in the press. The protagonist is acquitted of a sexual offence with a child due to insufficient evidence. He moves in with his asthmatic, religious mother, determined to stay on a righteous path. He diligently does the exercises prescribed by a prison psychologist in preparation for rehabilitation treatment. But then he meets the ten-year-old girl next door, who keeps seeking out his company... "Inge Schilperoord is stylistically strong and writes with empathy but also with control. The story is both cruel and beautiful," wrote Elsevier magazine. English, Italian and French translation rights have since been sold. Schilperoord works as a forensic psychologist at the Pieter Baan Centrum and other institutions, and writes for NRC Handelsblad as well as Psychologie and Crossing Border magazines.

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

(Belgium, 1969) is the stage name of Belgian singer Helmut Lotigiers, who debuted with the Gent opera at age five. Fourteen years later he became well known in the Dutch/Flemish sphere through his participation in the Soundmixshow. More than 13 million of his "classical lite" records have been sold. He sang duets with Andrea Bocelli, Montserrat Caballé, Eros Ramazzotti, Placido Domingo and Cliff Richard, among others. He also gained world fame with lite-classical versions of African, Latin American and Russian pop songs. He has reached the number-two spot on American Billboard. After some down time, he went in a whole new direction with 2013's Mijn hart & mijn lijf (My Body & Soul), an album of a dozen original numbers sung in Dutch. For a literary evening at the Brussels Bozar in 2015, he composed musical literary portraits. At this festival, he performs with poets and sets poetry to music.

(Romania, 1973) grew up in Transylvania during Ceausescu's totalitarian regime. At age 15, he moved to Hungary. His novel The White King (2008) has been translated into 30 languages and won acclaim from the international literary press as well as various literary prizes. The book deals with a boy growing up under the totalitarian regime that has taken away his father. His rebellious youth is dominated by constant oppression and his father's permanent absence. During the festival, his novel Vuurstapel (Fire Stack) will come out in Dutch. This time, the protagonist is a 13-year-old girl living through the confusing years after the bloody revolution that executed the dictator. In Hungary and beyond, Dragomán is considered a kindred spirit to David Mitchell, George Orwell and Stanley Kubrick. He has translated the work of James Joyce, Samuel Beckett and Ian McEwan. Dragomán lives in Budapest with his wife, the poet Anna Szabo, and their two sons.

(The Netherlands, 1955) is always exploring the boundaries between fact and fiction. She shot to fame with her first novel De wetten (The Laws, 1991). Her two subsequent novels, De vriendschap (Friendship, 1995) and I.M. (1998), also became bestsellers. She went on to publish Geheel de uwe (Sincerely Yours, 2004), Lucifer (2007) and Logboek van een onbarmhartig jaar (Logbook of a Merciless Year, 2011). Palmen has written several collections of essays, such as Een kleine filosofie van de moord (A Brief Philosophy of Murder, 2004), Het geluk van de eenzaamheid (The Joy of Loneliness, 2009) and Het drama van de afhankelijkheid (The Drama of Dependence, 2017). Many of her novels are based on events in her own life; her essays are exceptionally narrative. In 2023, she published Voornamelijk vrouwen (Mainly Women), personal essays about eleven women and one man who shape their lives in idiosyncratic ways. Palmen engages with them, challenges them, and discovers differences and similarities with her own life. Her multi-award-winning work is also internationally successful and has been translated into twenty languages.

(Arnhem, NL 1953) had his international breakthrough with The Dinner, a novel that spent weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, has been published in 37 countries, and has been adapted for stage and screen. The dark story of boys from a good family who murder a drifter mainly addresses the question of how responsible parents are for the misdeeds of their children. Adolescent behaviour was also the theme of Koch's debut novel, Red ons, Maria Montanelli (Save Us, Maria Montanelli, 1989). In Zomerhuis met zwembad (Summer Cottage with Pool, 2011), he again showed how easily successful people can fall from grace. His characters inevitably say or do unexpected things, which is also the case in his short-story collection Korte geschiedenis van het bedrog (A Short History of Deception, 2013). In his latest novel, Geachte heer M. (Dear Mr. M.), he takes aim at Dutch writers. Koch is also a columnist and an actor, as well as the creator of Jiskefet, an absurdist public-television series.

(Doetinchem, NL, 1958) is a highly versatile writer who constantly changes up his work. Sometimes his tone is serious, as in Schaduwkind (Shadow Child, 2003), about the death of his young daughter. This bestseller was translated into more than fifteen languages. In 2009's  J. Kessels, The Novel he channels an altogether different voice. A semi-parody of the hard-boiled crime novel, it features one of Thomése’s favourite recurring characters, J. Kessels, living it up a he smokes cigarettes and devours deep-fried meatballs. The book was made into a film in 2015, starring Frank Lammers and Fedja van Huêt. De onderwaterzwemmer (The Underwater Swimmer, 2015) about the life Tin, who as a child loses his father on a dark night in wartime, shows that only man himself can alter his destiny. In 1991 Thomése won the AKO Literature Prize for Zuidland (Southland), and in 2012, the Bob den Uyl Prize for Grillroom Jeruzalem.

(Belgium, 1984) calls herself a poetic cabaret artist. She makes short films, writes columns, and tours Flanders for her own prime-time programme Het is de moeite (It's Worth the Trouble), which brings poetry to the people. In her poetic cabaret, she pokes fun at traditional poetry readings that make both poets and the public feel uncomfortable. Vanhauwaert studied Language Arts at the Antwerp Conservatory, where she now teaches. She wrote columns for De Morgen and contributed to the cultural programme Bar du Matin on Radio 1. She won the 2011 Female Debut Award for her first volume of poetry, Ik ben mogelijk (I Am Possible). Her second collection from 2014, Wij zijn evenwijdig (We Are Parallel), won the Herman de Coninck Audience Award as well as the 2015 Hugues C. Pernath Prize, and the collection is nominated for the VSB Poetry Award. She was a finalist in both the 2012 World Poetry Slam competition and at the 2014 Leids Cabaret Festival. For Flemish TV she took to the streets in 2014 to acquaint people with poetry in unexpected places.

(Norway, 1968) is a writer, translator, and literary "rock star." He debuted in 1988 with Ute av verden (Out of this World), which won the Norwegian Critics' Prize. His second book En tid for alt from 2004 was published in Dutch as Engelen vallen langzaam (Angels Fall Slowly).On the basis of biblical fragments it reveals links between religion and science. His six-part autobiographical novel cycle Min kamp (My Struggle) from 2009-2011 is a global hit. In it, Knausgård talks about his life and his relationships with parents and friends. In revealing language he describes the downfall of his alcoholic, divorced father. Other parts of the cycle were published in Dutch as Liefde (Love, 2012), Zoon (Son, 2013), Nacht (Night, 2013), Schrijver (Writer, 2014) and Vrouw (Wife, 2015). In 2015 and 2016 he published the four-part The Four Seasons, an autobiographical series about his newly born daughter Anne.

(Netherlands, 1961) is a writer, journalist and, since 2012, Editor-in-Chief of the literature section of NRC newspaper. He studied history and Russian at the University of Amsterdam. Krielaars has written novels, a short-story collection, and various books about Russian history. Het brilletje van Tsjechov (Through Chekov's Glasses) was published in 2014, a report of his travels through Russia in the footsteps of the famous author. His book Reizen door Rusland (Travels through Russia) earned high praise and won the 2015 Bob den Uyl Prize. Alles voor het moederland (Everything for the Mother Country, 2017) tells about Stalin's reign of terror in the times of Isaak Babel and Vasili Grossman.

(1957) is director of the Literatuurmuseum in The Hague and chair of the Jan Campert Foundation. He studied Dutch language in Leiden and, as of 1982, worked for the organisation that looks after the national Dutch literary heritage (formerly the Letterkundig Museum). He organised exhibitions about writers such as Remco Campert, Miep Diekmann, and Cees Nooteboom. From 2002 to 2005 he was director of the Haags Historisch Museum/Museum de Gevangenpoort, and afterwards of Stichting Lezen. In 2009 he returned to the Literatuurmuseum as director. Meinderts has publications to his name on writers Anna Blaman, Emmy van Lokhorst and Sonja Witstein. He also wrote Een literaire roadtrip: in 30 dagen langs 100 schrijversgraven (2010), ‘Uit geil en bloed bestaat dit rotte leven!’: Max Kijzer (1893-1944) (2021) en In gekroonde stoeten (2022).

(Netherlands, 1957) was, for 25 years, director and programmer of Writers Unlimited which he founded in 1995. After studying English Language at Leiden University and Theatre Sciences at Utrecht University, he worked in theatres as a dramaturge, director, critic and tour organiser. In 1992 he organised the Samuel Beckett Festival in The Hague, a collaboration of the city's arts organizations. In 1995 he organised the Indië/Indonesië Festival (Dutch East Indies/Indonesia Festival), which brought together the arts of Indonesia and the Netherlands to celebrate the Republic of Indonesia's 50th anniversary. This event, ending with the Indische Winternacht (East-Indies Winternight), was the start of the Winternachten international literary festival The Hague. Under his guidance, Writers Unlimited and Winternachten festival grew out to become a both nationally and internationally reputed platform where writers, poets, scientists and journalists from all over the world met their audiences for conversations, recitations and performances about culturally diverse, social, literary, scientific and other topical themes.

(Rosmalen, NL, 1965) has been the SWDC councillor for urban development, housing, sustainability, and culture for the city of The Hague since 2014. From 1998 to 2014 he was a councillor and floor leader of the Hague City Party. Wijsmuller studied at the Polytechnic Institute for Photography in The Hague and worked at the World Wide Video Centre (the former Kijkhuis), among other jobs.

(Amsterdam, NL, 1963) studied Dutch language and literature in Amsterdam. He writes reviews, interviews, columns and obituaries, and heads the books section of De Volkskrant newspaper. In 2011 he published Eindelijk Sneeuw (Snow at Last: twelve wintry stories about artists, writers, and books, from Willem Witsen's cityscapes to the tears of Mrs. Dickens). Exerpts from his reviews and interviews were published in the books Langzaam lopen is al verdacht (Walking Slowly is Suspicious, 1999), De ongeneeslijke lezer – een werkboek (The Incurable Reader: a workbook, 2002), Het woord is aan de schrijver (The Writer Has the Floor, 2005), and De Broodschrijver (The Hack, 2006), about Bart Chabot's biography of Herman Brood. In 2012 he published Kreten uit een urn (Cries from an Urn), a lecture on the role of the critic in our time. His text "Naar boven mit Brakman" ("Up With Brakman") accompanied the 2015 unveiling of the Brakman monument in Enschede.

(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

(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

(USA, 1955) is a philosopher, commentator, essaysist and director of the Einstein Forum in Potsdam. She combines old ideals of freedom, equality and brotherhood with cynical realism: "Idealism for grownups," as she calls it. In 2014 she won the Spinoza Lens, a biannual Dutch prize for an "internationally renowned thinker on ethics and society." Neiman, a Jewish-American, became known with Evil in Modern Thought: An Alternative History of Philosophy. In Why Should You Grow Up? (2015), she uses the work of famous philosophers like Kant, Rousseau and De Beauvoir to show that ideals need not be lost to the passing years, and are especially needed, for example, to counteract the kind of evil embraced by IS youth. "It is precisely our society's materialism that drives young people into the clutches of radical ideology." She holds politicians responsible for no longer daring to promote their own Enlightenment-inspired European culture. 

(Russia, 1961) is a Ukrainian writer world famous for the mix of harsh realism and absurdist humour in his novels and non fiction books. He is a respected commentator on the situation in his country. In The President's Last Love, Kurkov employs humour and cynicism to describe how a boy manages to work his way up to become the most powerful man in the country. Ukraine Diaries: Dispatches from Kiev, his eyewitness account of political unrest in the Ukraine, was published in 2014. Dairy of an Invasion (2022) and Our daily war (2024) are collections of Kurkov's writings and broadcasts. In 2024, he published The Silver Bone, the first part of The Kyiv Mysteries, his series of crime novels in historical settings. The second part The Stolen Heart will be published in 2025; the third part The Public Sauna Case is in development.

(India, 1970) grew up and was educated in Calcutta, Oxford and Cambridge. His book The Lives of Others, about life in Calcutta, was nominated for the prestigious Booker Prize and highly praised in the international press. The novel, which will be released in Dutch translation during the festival, portrays a bourgeois Calcutta family. When one of the sons joins a radical political group, its already complicated relationships come into sharp focus. The ruling hierarchy of the family, three generations of which live under one roof, reflects the complex Indian caste sytem. Mukherjee's first novel, A Life Apart, is about an Indian man who moves from Calcutta to London to build a new life. Mukherjee is a critic for The Times and The Sunday Telegraph, and has written for The Daily Telegraph, The Observer, The New York Times and other papers.

(Belgium, 1955) writes widely on wide-ranging topics, from poetry about her late husband Herman de Coninck in Taal zonder mij (Language without Me, 1998) to the struggle of an anorexia patient in her book Ann (2008). The human condition is always central to her extensive oeuvre. Her work also pays a noticeable amount of attention to the female sexual experience. In her novel De waar gebeurde geschiedenis van Victor en Clara Rooze (The True History of Victor and Clara Rooze), Hemmerechts plays with fact and fiction: a writer with writer's block tackles a story of incest to give free reign to her thoughts about writing and literature. Haar Bloed (Her Blood) appeared in 2012, for which she spent time in a hematology ward. In 2014 she caused an uproar with De vrouw die de honden eten gaf (The Woman Who Fed the Dogs), a novel inspired by the Dutroux case. Her latest novel Alles verandert (Everything Changes) closely follows the plot of J.M. Coetzee's In Ongenade (Disgrace), but with a female protagonist. How much does the gender of literary characters determine our view of their actions?

(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

(Yugoslavia, 1949) is a Croatian writer and journalist who divides her time between Stockholm and Zagreb. From 1982 to 1992 she wrote on feminist issues for Croatian media. After receiving threats due to her position on the rape of women during the Balkan War, she moved to Sweden in the early 1990s. She now writes for a wide range of publications, including La Stampa and Frankfurter Allgemeine. The war in the former Yugoslavia is the main focus of her work, both in her novels and non-fiction. She gave voice to women abused during the Balkan War in As If I Am Not There. And in They Would Never Hurt a Fly, she asks how people can be capable of extreme crimes in circumstances of war, referring to cases before the ICTY in The Hague. Nine books by Drakulić were published in Dutch between 1993 and 2003.

(Poland, 1968) is a writer, journalist and professor of philosophy. A student of cultural studies and philosophy, she earned her doctorate with a thesis on feminism, postmodernism and psychoanalysis that was published as a book in 2011. Bator taught in Japan, which became the basis of her breakthrough novel Japoński wachlarz (Japanese Fan). In 2013 she won the top Polish literary award, the Nike, with Ciemno, prawie noc (Dark, almost Night). This novel is about a young woman who returns to her hometown of Wałbrzych (also Bator's hometown). An investigative journalist, she wants to look into the mysterious disappearance of three children. The village's inhabitants behave strangely, and sinister events force her to confront dark aspects of her own past: her parents' death and her sister's suicide. Bator employs a mixture of styles, from Gothic horror to chatroom lingo. During the festival, her work will be the subject of the Polish translation contest.

(Cairo, 1957) is a writer, dentist, and one of the founders of the opposition movement Kefaya that helped launch the Egyptian Revolution. He had his international breakthrough with The Yacoubian Building, a novel about the lives of the inhabitants of an apartment block in Cairo. Although it paints a disconcerting picture of Egyptian society, it remained a bestseller in that country for years. It was also made into a film and a TV series. Al Aswani's writing style is quick and witty, with short chapters full of action, atmosphere and drama. His 2004 novella Friendly Fire, about a young man highly critical of corruption in Egypt, was banned. His newspaper columns about political developments in Egypt have been collected in On the state of Egypt. The Dutch translation of his latest novel will be presented at the 2015 Winternachten festival: De automobielclub (The Automobile Club of Egypt), about Cairo in the late 1940s, when Egypt was a British protectorate.

(Netherlands, 1964) is a writer, publicist and interviewer. She is a reviewer for Belgian daily newspaper De Standaard, writes the biography of author Joost Zwagerman and was awarded the J.M.A. Biesheuvel Prize for her debut, the short stories collection Diepe aarde (Deep Earth). She previously wrote for De Groene Amsterdammer and served as editor of De Bezige Bij, deputy director of the Dutch Foundation for Literature and chairman of the Authors' Union, among other positions. In 2013, 2016 and 2017, she was involved as a programme maker and interviewer and in 2022 as interim director of the Winternachten International Literature Festival The Hague.

(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.

(Bloemendaal, NL, 1971) is an editor with the daily NRC Handelsblad newspaper. Her book Koning eenoog, en migrantenverhaal (King One-Eye: An immigrant story) about Henk van Woerden was presented during the 2015 festival; the story of ever-seeking immigrant Van Woerden (1947-2005), who was a writer as well as a visal artist. He wrote a trilogy abut South Africa that received national and international attention, and which, in its rootlessness, forever changed Dutch literature about South Africa. In 2014 Het Boekenparadijs. De opkomst en ondergang van de grootste boekhandelsketen in Nederland (Book Paradise: The rise and fall of the biggest bookstore chain in the Netherlands) was published, which he co-wrote with NRC Handelsblad editor Hanneke Chin-A-Fo. It is a revealing and incisive reconstruction of the recent demise of the Polare chain.

(Harderwijk, 1972) is an art historian and director of the Municipal Museum in The Hague. He started his career as guest curator at the Dordrecht Museum, worked as assistant curator at the Van Gogh Museum from 1997 to 2000, as curator at the Mesdag Museum and as a member of the scientific staff at the Rijksmuseum. He was curator of exhibitions at Kunsthal Rotterdam from 2000 to 2006. He briefly returned to the Van Gogh Museum in 2009 before taking on his current position in The Hague. He was a jury member for the TV programme The New Rembrandt, searching for new artistic talent. Tempel has written a number of books on art, including Escher Meets Islamic Art (2014), which investigates how the patterns of Moorish art from southern Spain influenced his work. In Discover the Modern (2012), he shows how political and social events have influenced the development of art.

(Oost-Souburg, NL, 1959) studied Dutch and Literary Theory in Leiden. He spent several years as a professional dancer. Later he developed into a versatile radio-maker at the NCRV broadcaster, including the successful "Casa Luna" programme. He now hosts two programmes on Radio 4: "Passaggio" (weekdays at 7 p.m.) and the talk show "Diskotabel." He also works in theatre as a dramaturge and writer. He is increasingly active as a presenter of concerts, conferences and debates. Every Saturday, he publishes an interview with an inspiring special guest in De Correspondent online daily.

(Germany, 1943) is a writer, translator and publisher. He has said that his life's goal is to "show people that a day without poetry is a wasted day." The late Michael Zeeman called him "a romantic in the era of cynicism, a lyrical voice of desire." A selection of Krüger's poetry, Voor het onweer (Before the Storm), was published in 2012, translated by his longtime translator Cees Nooteboom. In his introduction, Nooteboom praised Krüger's "utterly unique" voice "that pulls you into an intimacy, parlando poetry of deceptive simplicity that sees and tells much." From 1968 to 2013, Krüger worked for the famous German Carl Hanser publishing house, which he eventually directed. Since 1975, he has been a jury member for the Petrarch Prize for European poets. In 2013 he became President of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts.

(1958) is a philosopher and lecturer on the esthetics of music and cultural philosophy at the Royal Conservatory. Since his time as a university researcher, he has worked in the border areas of philosophy where it encounters literature, theatre and politics. He has published on themes of esthetics, metaphysics, political philosophy and the philosophy of law. According to Dommisse, all philosophy again faces the challenge of linking an academic level of thought with the need to carefully bring it into the public sphere. Theatre companies seek him out for wanted and unwanted dramaturgical advice. He is involved with the work of Thomas Mann and Pasolini and nurtures a passion for Shakespeare. Together with STET English Theatre, he organized a Shakespeare festival in 2016 and 2018.

(Suriname, 1968) is a journalist, writer, and economist. She writes books, essays and columns on politics and society. For eleven years, she wrote a widely read column in Dutch national daily newspaper de Volkskrant every other day, for which she was awarded the Heldring Prize for best columnist in the Netherlands. In 2024, she received an honorary doctorate from the University of Humanistic Studies. She wrote the political biography Mark, portret van een premier (2017; Mark, portrait of a prime minister) and compiled her columns about the COVID pandemic year 2020 in Dagboek van een krankzinnig jaar (Diary of a Mad Year). In 2025, her book Waar ik me voor schaam (What I am ashamed of) was published, a non-fictional, perceptive account of a search for the workings of intergenerational shame and totalitarian temptation.

(The Netherlands, 1959) has been writing about the expectations men and women have of each other and of life since her debut novel Bloem (Flower). Her novel Atoomgeheimen (Nuclear Secrets is about intimacy and the loss of ideals. She has been called the chronicler of contemporary womanhood; she explores her themes further in her novels De vertrouweling (The Confidant) and Zachte riten (Soft Rites). Pruis works at De Groene Amsterdammer weekly as a literary editor and columnist, writing essays on topics as diverse as humour, shyness and greed. She received the Jan Hanlo Prize for her collection of essays Kus me, straf me, and the J. Greshoff Prize for essayism with Genoeg nu over mij. For her columns, collected in Oplossingen (Solutions), she received the J. Heldring Prize. In Boos Meisje. Over vrouwen en frictie (Angry Girl. About Women and Friction), she writes about the split in which girls and women find themselves, including portraits of writers she admires such as Renate Rubinstein and Vivian Gornick. Her recently published confrontational novel Huiswerk (Homework) is about white privilege and the tension between employer and employee.

(Amsterdam, NL, 1971) is a literary critic with the NRC Handelsblad newspaper. He believes that a novel is good if it changes his view of the world. Fortuin studied history and philosophy in Amsterdam and Madrid. During his studies he wrote for the faculty paper Babel; Folia, the weekly paper of the Amsterdam University; Biografie Bulletin and Historisch Nieuwsblad. He's worked for the Books supplement of NRC Handelsblad since 1998, became its editor in 1999 and literary coordinator in 2005. He has focused strongly on Dutch literature, history and sports books. Fortuin was an editor with Magazijn, a yearbook for writers under forty, and together with Hans Schoots compiled Ongenaakbaar Madrid (Inaccessible Madrid, 2003), a collection of stories about the Spanish capital. He's on the editorial board of the Foundation of Literary Activities Amsterdam. His biography of publisher Geert van Oorschot was published in 2015.

(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

(Denmark, 1972) is a Danish/Dutch philosopher, literary scholar and writer. Her initial work dealt with love and evil in person-to-animal and person-to-person relationships; now she turns her gaze inside with Go East, her quest for spirituality, and Mag ik je wat vragen over lust en liefde (Can I ask you something about lust and love), a workbook to increase happiness.Turkse Vlinders (Turkish Butterflies, 2005) explored her own experience with intercultural love affairs. Leugenaars (Liars, 2006) was a philosophical inquiry into Latin lovers, crooks and other shady characters. The cultural differences between East and West formed the leitmotif of her first novel, Dokter Jazz (Doctor Jazz, 2009). For television, she made a series about philosophy and Scandinavia. Her debut children's book, Lieve Stine, weet jij het? (Dear Stine, Do You Know?) won the 2015 Silveren Griffel award.

(Zwolle, NL 1984) is Glenn de Randamie's rapper's name. Typhoon began at age fifteen in Rudeteens, together with his brother Blaxtar and Phreako Rico of Opgezwolle. Three years later the first tracks of his own appeared on Vet verse flows. In 2004 he won the Dutch Grand Prix in the category R&B and Hiphop. A year later he was making tracks for music channel The Box on themes as varied as the division of roles between men and women, homosexuality, religion, money, policies regarding immigrants, top-class sports, ideals and sex. Together with Yes-R he recorded the song Bedankt (Thanks). In 2007 his first solo album was released Tussen licht en lucht (Between light and air). He put his heart and soul into it: “I'm no rapper, call me an expert on experience", he said himself. He likes to explore his boundaries and there are traditional African and Eastern sounds and jazz influences in his music. In 2009 together with four rapper friends he founded the Fakkelbrigade, won the Silver Harp and made an EP with New Cool Collective.

is a political scientist at the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS, part of Erasmus University Rotterdam) in The Hague and interested in transformative change and social movements, Together with his international students, he looks for alternative ways to support political democracy at a grassroots level. He constantly seeks out new forms of research, including "storytelling", which has become an increasingly important research method.

(China, 1952) became world-famous with Wild Swans, which sold more than ten million copies. It tells the history of China from the perspective of her own, her mother's, and her grandmother's lives. Chang became an international celebrity but her book was banned in China. As a child of senior party cadres she enjoyed many priviledges, but her family lost everything when her parents came into conflict with Mao. They were rehabilitated after his death, and Chang became the first Chinese person to earn a PhD in England. After writing Wild Swans, she spent more than a decade working with her husband, Irish historian Jon Halliday, on a bulky biography of Mao Zedong. In 2013 she published The Empress Dowager Cixi: the concubine who launched modern China. It portrays the often-criticized Cixi, who ruled China from 1861-1908, as a smart proto-feminist who guided China into the modern world but was curtailed by the conservative imperial bureaucracy.

(Vlaardingen, NL, 1946) is a lawyer and writer. After a series of books on Dutch and world history he made his 1991 breakthrough with Hoe God verdween uit Jorwerd (How God Disappeared from Jorwerd), about the demise of European peasant culture. Eight years later he published De eeuw van mijn vader (My Father's Era), a 20th-century history of the Netherlands, partly based on his own family history. In 1999 Mak travelled across Europe, writing short daily reports for NRC Handelsblad newspaper. These travels formed the basis for his international best-seller In Europe, which was made into a 35-part TV series; a theatrical interpretation runs at the NTGent theatre until April 2016. In 2013's Reizen zonder John (In America: Travels with John Steinbeck), Mak follows in the late author's footprints to look for remaining bonds between Europe and the US. Mak was an acclaimed journalist, lecturer in constitutional and immigration law, and professor of urban issues. In 2015 he won the Golden Quill award for his engagement with national and international history and current events.

(Amsterdam, NL, 1986) is considered the great hope for Dutch literature. In 2011 he reveived De Tegel, a journalism prize, together with Daniël van der Meer for the interview series Het Decennium (The Decade). His 2010 debut novel Een Zondagsman (A Sunday Man), about a psychiatrist whose wife is in a coma, garnered widespread praise. His 2013 autobiographical novel De Vergeting (The Forgetting), about the day he lost his memory, was also enthusiastically received. 70 was published the same year, part three of a trilogy he wrote together with Jamal Ouariachi and David Pefko. In 2014, his hefty novel Het land 32 (Land 32) was both hailed and lambasted in the press. Together with his younger brother Thomas, he then wrote the thriller Ultimatum. His latest work, Een verlate reis (A Belated Trip), is an account of his visit to Auschwitz. In 2015, for De Volkskrant newsaper, he produced an interview series about the world of the unemployed and a reportage of his visit to Dutch troops in Mali.

(Morocco, 1961) is the Mayor of Rotterdam and a great lover of Arabic poetry. He grew up in Morocco's Rif Mountains and came to the Netherlands at age fifteen. Since the murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh in 2004, Aboutaleb has become known as a politician who brings people together but also tells it like it is. Aboutaleb has translated the poetry of Adonis, and  recited several of these poems in Arabic and Dutch at Rotterdam's 2010 Poetry International. For History Month in October 2015 he penned the essay "Dream & Deed," about three Jewish families who remained hidden behind the organ of Rotterdam's Breeplein Church for almost three years during the war. According to Aboutaleb, this story of "Rotterdam's Anne Frank house" has clear links with the refugee crisis currently playing out across Europe.

(UK, 1980), like the philosopher, remains curious about new things. Always pushing boundaries and incorporating fresh music. He approaches each set as a unique road trip with a wide range of styles and countries passing by. His kaleidoscopic sound includes global reggae, trippy cumbia, UK bass, slow rave & African acid. With 20 years of experience under his belt, Socrates has matured like a good wine to celebrate life with. During Writers Unlimited Festival, he will provide a swinging Silent Disco in the foyer of Theater aan het Spui during Friday and Saturday Night Unlimited from 23:15 hours onwards.

represents her husband, the Turkish writer, journalist and filmmaker Can Dundar. He is one of Turkey’s most famous media personalities, and is currently in remand due to espionage charges. Dundar, who is editor-in-chief of the Cumhuriyet newspaper, was arrested last November together with his editor-in-chief colleague in Ankara. Dundar has written for several newspapers, produced many television programs and published over twenty books. Right before his arrest, his newspaper had just received an award from Reporters Without Borders for publicly defending and supporting press freedom.

(Belgium, 1978) will be accompanying singer Helmut Lotti on the piano at the Winternatchten festival. He studied in Brussels, Antwerp and Rotterdam, receiving instruction in classical music as well as jazz and world music. Due to his versatility as a pianist and a music director, he is suited to both classical performances as well as musical productions, and is in high demand as a musician by jazz and pop groups. He has worked with groups like Spring, Cookies & Cream, Jackobond and Els De Schepper. He was also one of two pianists on the VRT TV programme "Sing that Song" (2013-14), in which two teams compete in a musical game. While he was still studying, he was approached to compose music for theatre, working with Raam Theatre and Het Gevolg. He also sings and plays his own songs with Old English texts.

(1959) is a composer, arranger and musician whose work blends many influences, including jazz, classical and folk music from all corners of the world. He was composer-in-residence of LOD Music Theatre in Ghent from 1989 to 2013. Among other projects, he created musical theatre productions with actor and director Koen De Sutter and Alain Platel of Les Ballets C de la B. His own folk fanfare Banda Azufaifo and the heartwarming House of Hidden Tunes I & II combine various musical styles, from Mozart to Camarón de la Isla. In 2001 he won the Louis Paul Boon prize for “his social engagement and his bond with mankind, evident in his whole oeuvre.” Three years later he was awarded the Grand Theatre Festival Prize. Van der Harst was the civic composer of Ghent in 2007 and 2008. He has made various CDs, including ones featuring Christmas and New Year songs from different cultures. At the festival, he will play and create music as musician-in-residence, both making and choosing music for various programmes.

(Netherlands, 1945) writes novels, stories, essays, lectures and columns with a strong historical bent. She debuted with 1987's Tine of de dalen waar het leven woont (Tine, or the Valleys Where Life Lives), a fictitious biography of 19th-century Dutch writer Multatuli's first wife. Her book De naam van de vader (The Name of the Father) won the 1994 Multatuli Prize. In 2002 she wrote Pelican Bay, about slavery in the Caribbean and the Netherlands. Her essay collection Schatplicht (Tribute) appeared in 2013, and her 2016 novel Aan het eind van de dag (At the End of the Day) is simultaneously a portrait of a career woman and a snapshot of the second half of the 20th century. De val van Thomas G. (The fall of Thomas G.) tells about the publisher of a controversial book. Noordervliet's body of work was awarded the 2018 Constantijn Huygens Prize.

(Zeddam, NL, 1956) is a Dutch journalist, historian and radio presenter. He was founder and editor-in-chief of the Historical Newsletter and he worked for the University of Leiden newspaper Mare. Palm also writes for Trouw newspaper and the Groene Amsterdammer magazine. He has written books such as De vergeten geschiedenis van Nederland (The Forgotten History of The Netherlands); Oerend hard (Super Fast), about the musician Ben Jolink; and Moederkerk, de ondergang van rooms Nederland (Mother Church: The Decline of the Roman-Catholic Netherlands). After a Catholic upbringing he turned away from the religion. He was very active for years with the then-revolutionary SP socialist party. Among other things, he works for OVT, the history program of the VPRO public radio station.

(Belgium, 1962) is a Slavicist, writer and actor. He made is debut with the novel Fluweel van leegte (Velvet Emptiness) in 1994. His poetry debut followed in 1996, after which he produced a novel, poetry collection, or travel book every year. He's currently acting in a monologue, Bloedgetuigen (Blood Witnesses), based on his own 2011 novel, which describes the 20th-century struggle between Eastern and Western Europe from various perpectives in 734 pages. Part three of his trilogy Het Vloekhout (Cursed Wood) will soon be published - a tragicomic story about our times, about belief and terrorism, about aging people's fear of total futility. De Boose has also curated an exhibition on Polish avant-garde artist Tadeusz Kantor, with whom he studied, and is working on a graphic novel about the Russian Revolution of 1917. In 2008, he received the Henriette Roland-Holst Prize for De Grensganger, reis langs de ruïnes van het IJzeren Gordijn (Border Walker: Travels along the ruins of the Iron Curtain).

(Belgium, 1984) studied with Dina Grossberger and Katelijne Van Laethem in Leuven, and was coached by Jard van Nes and Catrin Wyn Davies. She prefers contemporary opera and musical theatre but is also very active in Baroque repertoire. Her own Baroque ensemble Bel Ayre, which was named Selected Promising Ensemble at Antwerp's Festival Laus Polyphoniae in 2011, performed at Bozar in Brussels, the Rotterdam Opera Days, and the Flanders Festival in Mechelen. She has worked as a soloist with James Wood, Erik Van Nevel, Marcel Pérès, Titus Engel, Il Gardellino, and the vocal ensembles Encantar and Psallentes, among others. She was selected for the prestigious Lucerne Festival Academy in 2014, where she sang first soprano in Luciano Berio’s Coro under Sir Simon Rattle. She has sung and created works by contemporary composers like Frank Nuyts, Thomas Smetryns, and Alain Craens, and  worked on various productions of Het Muziek LOD, Transparant Music Theatre, and the Flemish Opera. 

(Morocco, 1975) is an award-winning writer, poet, playwright and curator. His 1996 debut, Bruiloft aan zee (Wedding By the Sea), was an immediate success. His second novel, De langverwachte (The Long-awaited) won him the prestigious 2003 Libris Literature Award. Benali's subjects vary, but sports and the migrant who never really feels at home are recurring themes. He has written novels about his great passion of running, about his travels, and about migrants' cultural identity (Bad Boy). His work has been published internationally. Recent books include the novel Paradijsvogel boven Hoge Woerd (Bird of Paradise over Hoge Woerd, 2022) and Het andere verhaal (The Other Story, 2022), an essay about his research into 75 years of modern Moroccan art.

(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

(Ede, NL, 1988) make her debut in 2014 with De Hemel boven Parijs (The Sky Over Paris). In this novel, an elderly professor of art history at the Sorbonne falls under the spell of a Dutch exchange student, who is the spitting image of his first love. Her presence points out the lies in his life. The central question is how to live with the ever-present possibility of failure, such as in love. Never start so as never to fail, or aim for the top at the risk of being destroyed? The translation rights for the novel have already been sold in Germany and Denmark. Hofstede lives in Brussels and studied art history and French in Utrecht, Paris, and Berlin. She received the 2012/2013 Hollands Maandblad magazine's "encouragement" scholarship for her short stories and essays. Hofstede works at a European heritage organization and is an editor at a speech and text agency. She is co-author of De Verbeelders (The Illustrators), a book about more than 100 years of book illustration in the Netherlands.

(USA, 1960) is President of PEN International. She has authored five novels, including Prayers for the Stolen. It was a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice and appeared internationally on many book-of-the-year lists. In 2018, Gun Love was published, a topical novel about homelessness, the America love for weapons and the despair of people living on the edge of society. She has published various volumes of poetry, including The Next Stranger. Clement also wrote cult classic Widow Basquiat about painter and street artist Jean-Michel Basquiat and life in New York City in the early '80s. She is a member of the prestigious Mexican 'Sistema Nacional de Creadores' and received an NEA Fellowship, an award of the American National Endowment for the Arts.

(Haarlem, NL, 1947) studied law in Groningen, founded the law faculty at the University of Maastricht, and later became its vice-chancellor. In 1993, he briefly held the position of Minister of Eductaion in the Lubbers III cabinet, then became a member of the Senate and Minister of Justice in the Kok II cabinet. In 2001 he took office as Mayor of Amsterdam, with the murder of Theo van Gogh as his blackest hour. Nine years later he was elected leader of the Labour Party, with strong support from its ranks. In 2010 he published his lectures and speeches under the title Binden (Bonds), with a foreword by Bas Heijne. After a tumultuous time he became disillusioned, stepping down as a political leader and member of parliament in early 2012. Cohen now holds positions such as chairman of the OBA's Supervisory Council, special lecturer at the University of Leiden, and chairman of the Foundation for Refugee Students. He grew up in a liberal Jewish family; his paternal grandparents perished in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. His father was vice-chancellor of the University of Leiden.

(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.

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Instagram: @gersonmain

(Netherlands, 1968) is a classicist and writer. He has more than 40 titles to his name, including poetry, novels, short stories, plays, scientific studies, translations and anthologies. His work has earned many nominations and prizes, including the 2014 Libris Literature Prize for his novel La Superba, an ode to the city of Genoa, where he lives and works. In 2016 he published Brieven uit Genua (Letters from Genoa), an autobiography in letter format and the counterpart to La Superba, which also discusses the publication of the novel. Grand Hotel Europa (2018), a book about love in times of mass tourism, nostalgia, European identity, and a part of the world that has become a museum, was nominated for the 2019 Libris Literature Prize and translated into 10 languages. Pfeijffer never eschews debate, expressing himself in essays, columns and TV programs.

(Belgium, 1976) writes novels, film scripts and plays. Her debut novel Slaap! (Sleep!) was published in 2003, followed by three novels (Reus, Vissen redden, Dertig dagen); four collections of short stories; a collection of journalism pieces, Wakker (Awake, together with photographer Charlie De Keersmaecker); and the graphic novella Tirol Inferno, written in iambic pentameter and rhyme and co-created with illustrator Klaas Verplancke. Her work has been translated into 26 languages and won various prizes, such as the F. Bordewijk Prize, the Opzij Literature Prize, the J.M.A. Biesheuvel Prize, and the NRC Handelsblad Readers Prize. She has also written several plays and film scripts, and worked with various theatre companies, especially Rotterdam-based Wunderbaum. In 2023, she published short stories in Koude soep (Cold Soup) and JIJ (You), an anthology of you-stories. January 2024 will see the premiere of Wunderbaum speel live (online gaat het mis), a theatre production by Wunderbaum with a stage text by Annelies Verbeke.

(UK, 1981) grew up in The Hague. At age 15, she wrote a year-long column for the Volkskrant newspaper about school life. These pieces were compiled in Overleven in 4B (Surviving 4B). In 2002 she published her first children's book, Alles kookt over (Everything's Boiling Over). Woltz studied history in Leiden and is now a full-time writer; she has 20 books to her name. She wrote Hondert uur nacht (One Hundred Hours of Night), about a New York girl who survives a hurricane, after she had herself experienced Hurricane Sandy in that city. Together with her father she wrote 2006's Post uit de oorlog (Mail from the War) about the Hunger Winter; he had to make a "hunger trek" to find food during the war. Her 2013 book Mijn bijzonder rare week met Tess (My Super Strange Week with Tess), about a girl who doesn't know her father, was awarded the Flag and Pennant by the Griffel jury. Her books have been translated into English, French, German, Hungarian, Slovenian, Danish, Norwegian, Japanese and Taiwanese.

(Belgium, 1947) is a writer and translator. Formerly he was also a journalist and newsreader with the Flemish television journal. He became well known as the author of well-documented books about Belgium and Brussels. In 1989's Het Belgisch labyrint (The Belgian Labyrinth), he analyzes his country of birth with passion and erudition. Mijn Nederland (My Netherlands) appeared in 2005, a response to the request to explain Holland to the desperate Dutch. With 1991's Verhalen van het Heggeland (Stories from Heggeland), but even more so with 1997's Altrapsodie, he made his name as a novelist. In his poetry, he breaks with a society losing itself in "disastrous modernization." In various debates he's stated his belief in a Greater Netherlands, a Benelux, in which the German, French and Dutch languages and cultures would enrich one another. In 2007 his daughter Judith Vanistendael published the graphic novel De maagd en de neger (The Virgin and the Negro), based on a short story of her father's about the love between and economics student and a political refugee from Togo. His collection Het was wat (That Was Something) has been nominated for the 2016 VSB Poetry Prize.

(Leeuwarden, NL, 1956) studied several languages, East Asian art history, and anthropology from 1977 to 1984. In 1984 he self-published his debut poetry collection Virus, virus, and in the late eighties he joined Maximalen, a group of poets who called for more action in poetry. Since then he has written a dozen further collections as well as stories and novellas. One of his most impressive titles is De aardse komedie (The Earthly Comedy), an enormous "novel poem" that rivals the great poetry of the past. After the death of his wife he wrote the memorable grieving volume Doodsbloei (Deathbloom), followed by the extatic song of renewal Mensenhand (Human Hand) that brings to life his new wife, Hera. The 2015 collection Zelf (Self) articulates how Boskma's grief for his wife penetrates to the core of his poetic being; it was nominated for the VSB Poetry Prize. Boskma's poems have been translated and published in China, the Czech Republic, France, and the United States. In 2012, he was one of the poets who participated in "The New York to Pittsburgh and Back Dutch Poetry Tour."

(Amsterdam, NL, 1954) wanted to "shake up the world" as a journalist for magazines like Panorama, Opzij, Viva and De Tijd. Her successful debut novel Buidenstaanders (Outsiders) was published in 1983. Her international breakthrough came with 1998's Een hart van steen (A Heart of Stone), which was translated in 15 countries. Dorrestein was called the first Dutch "female gothic" writer because of typical gothic themes like suppressed memories, family secrets, and ghostly apparitions. In her world, evil usually lurks close to home. The balance of power within families is one of her favourite subjects. Her life and work have been strongly influenced by her sister's 1979 suicide, and by the chronic fatigue syndrome from which she suffered for a decade. A report of her correspondence with the Chinese dissident Liu Di, Penvriendin in China (Penpal in China), was published in 2015. Dorrestein was one of the founders of the Anna Bijns Foundation, a biannual prize honouring "the female literary voice.". She died in 2018.

(Nijmegen, NL, 1969) is a historian, writer, and a reporter and columnist with De Volkskrant newspaper. As a reporter he specialized in minority issues and asylum seekers. Heijmans debuted as a novelist in 2011 with Op Zee (At Sea), about a father who sails from Denmark to the Netherlands with his daughter. The book was adapted for television and the French translation took 2013's Prix Médicis étranger, previously won by the likes of Milan Kundera, Orhan Pamuk and Philip Roth. Pristina was published in 2014, which pits the rigidity of a complacent repatriation officer against the individual suffering of an engaging, Dutchified, Kosovo-Serbian asylum seeker. This past 30 September he received the French Order of Arts and Letters. Heijmans has also written non-fiction, such as 2007's La vie Vinex (Suburban Life), in which he describes life in the Dutch suburb of IJburg. It was preceded  by 2005's De asielmachine (The Asylum Machine) and 2003's Allochtonië (Immigrant Central). He has also written scripts for the TV series De Fractie (The Sitting Members).

(Amsterdam, NL, 1962) studied jazz guitar at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. He admires Django Reinhardt but is also inspired by contemporary guitarists like Jim Hall, Jimmy Raney, Pat Martino, and Boulou Ferre, as well as Eastern European (gypsy) music. Voet has played in a number of his own ensembles (Cravat Quartet with Hady Mouallem and Deux-Creme-Deux with guitarist Henk de Geus) and performed with guitarists Jimmy Rosenberg and Fapy Lafertin, klezmer clarinettist Marcel Salomon, and artist/violinist Armando. Together with Dick van der Harst, he worked with the musical theatre troupe Het Muziek LOD. His biggest current project is Reinier Voet and Pigalle44, a collaboration with guitarist Jan Brouwer.

(Belgium, 1962) is a versatile performer. He works in various disciplines, such as musical theatre, dance, and contemporary classical and improvised music. He has contributed to productions of the Scapino Ballet, Walpurgis, Xynix, Amsterdam Theatre Group and the Spectra Ensemble. As a solo percussionist he has played the biggest venues of Europe and Australia. In Belgium, Konink mostly plays music written especially for him by composers such as Peter Vermeersch, Luc Brewaeys, Frank Nuyts, Philippe Boesmans, and Fredic Rzewski. He has played in various school programmes with Quatuor Danel as well as a percussion duet with Marcel Andriessen. As a composer, he has written theatre music for Ensemble Leporello, Teneter, and Compagnie Boktor. Konink also teaches at the Ghent Conservatory.

(Belgium) is a violist and cellist. He began his studies with the famous violist Pierre Penassou. Then he performed with various string ensembles, especially in the classical arena. As a member of his own group, Quatuor Danel, he played on pianist Kris Defoort's Conversations/Conservations album. He teaches chamber music at the Brussels Conservatory.

Helden, NL, 1961) studied Dutch language and literature in Utrecht. Until the mid-nineties, he was a writer and literary jouralist for the weeklies Vrij Nederland and HP/De Tijd. In 1995 he became an editor with De Arbeiderspers, a literary publisher of fiction and non-fiction, prose and poetry, and Dutch and translated literature. In 1999 he became the editor-in-chief, and in 2013 the publisher. The company's writers include Anna Enquist, Maarten ‘t Hart, Arthur Japin, and Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer, and young authors like Ineke Riem and Christophe Vekeman. The company's foreign authors include Michel Houellebecq, Ryszard Kapuscinski, Cormac McCarthy and Tim Parks, as well as the world's most translated writer, Paulo Coelho. De Arbeiderspers is also home to the literary series Privé-domein. Nijssen has also written and translated literary fiction and non-fiction, and published several books.

(Netherlands, 1964) published, in collaboration with many illustrators, an extensive, highly acclaimed and awarded oeuvre comprising poems, children's and young adult's novels, drama, non-fiction, songs and texts for picture books. He makes podcasts and started the publishing company Blauw Gras. He does not shy away from heavier themes in his work. In 2008 he started the Slash series: books based on true stories of young people who have already been through a lot, with De Gelukvinder (The Luck Finder), about a boy from Afghanistan fleeing the Taliban. In 2020 he initiated Querido Glow, a book series in which young people who identify as queer can recognize themselves. Translations of his works are available in many countries.

(Gambia, 1964) was raised on culture: as of his fifth birthday, he studied to become a kora player. He is a true "jalli" (griot), meaning someone who passes on history though song and music. The Fiscoband, which he founded in 1993, was one of the first groups to combine kora with Western instruments. Kutayeh has lived in the Netherlands since 1996, and has performed at many festivals and venues with his Jalliya Ensemble, such as at the Concertgebouw, Tivoli Vredenburg, Melkweg, Philips Cenrum and the Schiecentrale. Later, he also founded the successful ensembles Jalliyabaa and KoraFusion, in which he frequently collaborates with musicians from all kinds of disciplines. Since 2000 he has given kora lessons at the Amsterdam Conservatory.

(Alphen aan de Rijn, 1989) grew up in Leiden and Voorschoten. After several long and notably chaotic student years he is now close to graduating at Leiden University as a historian, focusing on the decolonisation of Indonesia. He works as an editor for digital cultural magazine De Optimist alongside his position as a book reviewer and reporter for the cultural blog CLEEFT. He is no stranger to writing prose himself: in December 2015 he won the Christmas Story Contest of the Leiden University magazine Mare. After his graduation he will start a teacher training at the University of Amsterdam.

(Haarlem, NL, 1966) earned her stripes with her strongly independent and intellectual stance. As a politician she was a staunch advocate of human rights, women's rights, and civil liberties. Since 2011 she has worked as an author, broadcaster, and producer (including the TV series The Political Party). In 2014 she made the documentary series Seks en de zonde (Sex and Sin) with Hassnae Bouazza, about women in the Islamic world. A series on terror with the working title Fout na der oorlog (On the Wrong Side After the War) is in production. In recent years she has been associated with the universities of Tilburg and Utrecht as a guest lecturer. At the request of the government, she led two commissions of inquiry into the state of the semi-public sector, and one into financial irregularities at the University of Amsterdam. She also holds various management positions, including chair of the Supervisory Board of the Weekly Press Group, of the Board of the Dutch Refugee Foundation, and of the 3rd international conference on women's shelters. Since November 2015 she has been president of the Dutch Association of the Disabled. Her autobiography Pluche (Plush), about her years in national politics, will be published in February 2016.

(Iran, 1960) is a member of the Senate of the Dutch Parliament (Eerste Kamer) since June 2019 for GroenLinks. From 2008 to 2018 she chaired the Executive Board of Oxfam Novib. Karimi is highly experienced in the field of international cooperation and human rights, and she is a strategic delevopment coach for leadership and organisational change. She came to Europe as a political refugee in 1983. She studied in the Netherlands and was a member of the Dutch House of Representatives for GroenLinks (Green Left) from 1998 till 2006. In 2007 she helped to establish the Afghan parliament as a consultant with the UN branch UNDP. As an administrator, she was involved with the advisory board of the International Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World, among other projects. She chairs the Board of Stichting Writers Unlimited since 2018. Karimi has written thee books: Slagveld Afghanistan (Battlefield Afghanistan, 2006), with co-author Chris Keulemans Het geheim van het vuur (The Secret of Fire, 2007) and In naam van de vrijheid: hoe de wereld na 9/11 steeds onvrijer is geworden (In the name of freedom: how our world has become increasingly unfree after 9/11, 2021).

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

(1957, Enschede) moved to Assen when he was 11, where he grew up and attended high school. At thirteen, he decided to become a writer. In order to do so he quit his education and took on several jobs to provide for himself. In 1990, his debut, Mendels erfenis (Mendels heritage) was published, which was awarded the Geertjan Lubberhuizen Prize for the best debut. Two years later, his second novel Het grote verlangen (The Great Desire) was awarded the Ako Literature Prize. In 1995, the short novella Bederf is de weg van alle vlees (Decay is the way of all flesh) and the collection Het derde testament (The third testament), a collection of Jewish texts of writers and scientists. In 1997 In Babylon was published, a great epic novel about a special family in history: as much a magical realist novel as it is a horror story.  Six years after his previous novel Moring came forcefully bacj with his new novel Eden. Eden is the final part of the trilogy that Moring began with Dis (2006) and Louteringsberg (2011). Marcel Moring is without any doubt one of the most ingenious authors of our time and also has the most imagination." -The Time Literary Supplement

(1973) is an historian and a journalist. In 2013 she published Het nieuwe land (The New Land), on the history of the creation of the Dutch polder Flevoland. De helpende hand (The Helping Hand) is her second book.

shall be accepting the Oxfam Novib/PEN Award on behalf of the Eritrean poet and songwriter Amanuel Asrat. Habton Yohannes is a Dutch journalist, writer and lecturer of Eritrean origin. In addition to working in radio and television, he writes for Dutch and foreign newspapers. He is also an activist for peace and human rights. He keeps on putting the violation of human rights in Eritrea on the agenda of the Dutch parliament, the European parliament, the African Union and the United Nations. He frequently gives lectures about the situation. During the border war between Ethiopia and Eritrea (1998 – 2000) he called, via the IKON radio, for Eritreans and Ethiopians to join in protest against the war. He interrupted his work to write a ‘letter of piece’ addressed to the late prime minister of Ethiopia, Mr. Meles Zenawi and the president of Eritrea, Mr. Isaias Afwerki. The letter was signed by archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nigerian president Olesegun Obsanjo, former minister of defense of the United States, Robert MacNamara and more than 30 other international personalities and laureates.

(The Netherlands, 1962) is a Dutch writer, screenwriter and visual artist. She made her debut in 1995 with the collection of short stories Begeerte (Desire), which was nominated for the AKO Literature Prize, the Anton Wachter Prize and the ECI Prize. The title story was awarded the Rabobank Spring Prize for Literature. Her first novel Gemis (1997) was nominated for the Libris Literature Prize. Her most recent book, Vallen is als vliegen (Falling is Like Flying, 2019), was shortlisted for both the 2019 Bookspot Literature Prize and the 2020 Libris Literature Prize. The novel was named the best Dutch-language novel of 2019 by NRC Handelsblad and Humo. Uphoff was editor of the literary magazine De Revisor and board member and president of PEN Netherlands. As a screenwriter, she wrote the feature film screenplay Een Groot Geweld (Topkapi Films).

East Timor’s poet-singer Abé Barreto Soares sings songs about East-Timor with singer-musician Aloz McDonald.

(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

(1950, Morocco) is one of the first Moroccan authors writing in Arabic and whose work is translated in English. Aboezaid actively witnessed the struggle for independence and in her most recent book The Director and Other Stories from Morocco (2006) she writes about the many changes which the struggle for indepenence brought about in Morocco. In her semi-autobiografical novel The Last Chapter. A Moroccan Woman's Life, published in Dutch in 2004, Aboezaid writes about the search for an intellectual Moroccan woman, who, keeping her religious identity, tries to find her personal freedom within Moroccan society. In The Year of the Elephant (1990) independence again plays a major role. In it she writes about the life of a political activist in the period after Moroccan independence in which many Moroccan women were forced back into their traditional roles. Not only in her books does she draw attention to women's rights, in 2002 she was a member of a special commission looking into it. Right now she is writing a biography of the Prophet Mohammed. In addition to novels, Aboezaid has written poetry, articles and short stories.

(1954, Iran) is the pen name of Hossein Sadjadi Ghaemmaghami Farahani. Since his debut De Adelaars (The Eagles) in 1993 he has navigated between two worlds, the Netherlands and the country of his birth. Abdolah grew up in a harsh, Islamic region. Since he was twelve he read western literature and caught the scent of freedom. While studying physics in Teheran, he joined a secret leftwing party. In 1980 he published two collections of short stories clandestinely under the name Kader Abdolah. In 1988 he fled Iran and ended up in the Netherlands where he has since published a large body of works consisting of novels, short story collections and collected columns, published under the pen name Mirza in de Volkskrant. In Papegaai vloog over de IJssel (Parrot flew over the IJssel, 2014) four migrant families build a new existence in typically Dutch villages along the river; in Salam Europa (2016) the Shah of Persia travels through Europe late in the 19th century, accompanied by a large following of bickering courtiers.