(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.

(Leyden, 1976) his debut, Art. 285 (2006) was a resounding success, winning him three prestigious literary prizes, and a nomination for the AKO Literatuurprijs. Art. 285 is about a Dutch piano teacher and background pianist, Sebastiaan Steijn, who is charged with and condemned for stalking. Weijts intersperses his story with current affairs, modern day language use and trivia. He does so in his second novel, Via Capello 23 (2008). Here too the main character gets into legal trouble because of his contacts with women, but this time the scene of the crime is touristy Venice. In his novels Weijts likes to play with fact and fiction. ‘Writing a novel is a bit like disassembling reality and rebuilding it in a world of words,' he said. Weijts was editor and columnist of the University of Leyden weekly Mare and is currently a columnist with nrc.next and the Groene Amsterdammer. His Mare columns were pubished in Sluitingstijd (Closing Time; 2003). 'Het valse seizoen' (The false season) is the new novel of Christiaan Weijts and tells the story of three musicians, who all all confronted with the dark power of music, and are forced to radically change their livers.

(The Netherlands, 1944) is a writer and poet. His novel De Keizer en de astroloog (The Emperor and the Astrologer, 2008) sees apprentice psychiatrist Simon employed as an astrologer at the court of Emperor William II in Doorn, ending up in absurd situations. In 2000 he wins the Multatuli Prize for his novel The Revue (1999). In Teatro Olimpico (2014) Dutch theatre professionals try to stage their show in Italy. Wederzijds (Mutual, 2017) is a satire about neighbourhood help and in the historical and humorous De ziekte van Weimar (The Disease of Weimar, 2019), a man from Franeker travels to Weimar to meet Goethe. VICTORIEN, ik hou van je (2021) is a collection of 'stories and outpourings'; 2023 will see the publication of his third collection of poems, Vogelkerkhof.