(Manchester, 1954) grew up in London and studied at Cambridge and Harvard. Since 1981 he has lived in Italy, where he teaches literary translation at IULM university, Milan. He is the author of fourteen novels including Europa (1997) which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. A corrosive exposé of EC hypocrisy, Europa is narrated by savagely unhappy Jerry Marlowe who, together with his former mistress and a bus full of feckless colleagues and students, under­takes a journey to Strasbourg to petition to save a job that Jerry does not believe in. In the 1990s Parks wrote two personal accounts of life in northern Italy, Italian Neighbours and An Italian Education (published in the Netherlands in 2002,), and some years later A Season with Verona, which set out to describe Italy through the way the country engages with football. All three books achieve an exhilarating anthropological precision while the narrative voice oscillates between an insider’s and an outsider’s point of view. His most recent book, Teach Us To Sit Still, is the thought-provoking and highly entertaining story of the author's quest to overcome ill health. Parks has also translated works by Machiavelli, Moravia, Tabucchi, Calvino and Calasso and writes regularly on translation issues. His Translating Style, an analysis of Italian translations of English modernists is used as teaching material in a number of universities. Parks also publishes in the New York Review of Books and the London Review of Books.

(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.

(Wieringerwaard, 1962) is a master in describing Dutch landscapes with grazing sheep and cackling geese. He grew up as a farmer’s son in the northern most part of the province North Holland. In addition to being a historical linguist he is a gardener and a skating coach. In 2006 his debut Boven is het stil (The Twin) was an instant success. This novel about a farmer’s son who waits for the death of his father so that he can lead a life of his own, Bakker received the Gouden Ezelsoor, the Debutantenprijs (prize for new talent) and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Boven is het stil was sold to almost thirty countries, has been adapted for the stage and is now turned into a movie by Nanouk Leopold. Bakker’s second country life novel Juni (June) of 2009 was again an international success. Spring 2010 his third Novel De Omweg (The Detour) appeared, about a woman who leaves her husband and travels to Wales. Columns about animals Bakker wrote for the Dutch weekly De Groene Amsterdammer have been collected, together with some of his weblogs in Ezel, schaap en tureluur (Donkey, sheep and redshank; 2009).