(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 Hague, 1956) grew up in Brussels. In 1983 he worked as an EU correspondent with Reuters' in Brussels. From 2000 to 2006 he was editor-in-chief of Reuters' in London, heading an international editorial staff of reporters, photographers and tv producers. In this period he was among other things responsible for Reuters' reporting of the worldwide effects of 9/11, such as the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and for the founding of Reuters' News and Data Centre in Bangalore, India. In his career he has travelled widely in Asia, the Arab world and other areas where Reuters’ reporters are met with censorship on a daily basis. Right now he chairs the Reuters' Foundation.