(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.

(Ireland, 1979) is a literary expert and journalist who lives and works in Dublin. He writes for publications like the New Yorker, The Independent en New York Times Magazine. His 2018 debut To Be a Machine was nominated for the prestigious Baillie Gifford Prize, the most important British non-fiction award. In the book, O'Connell researches trans-humanism, a Silicon Valley subculture that devotes itself to radical life extension by melding man and technology. In 2018, O'Connell told the NRC: "They have a mechanistic view on what it means to be human. They literally see humans as machines. [...] My inquiry was into the question of what it means for a human to become a machine, but ultimately I learned more about what it means to be human."