(Winterswijk, 1944) was the first Poet Laureate of the Netherlands. He is considered one of the best columnists in the country, a novelist, renowned translator, and an enhtusiastic reviewer of poetry. Komrij is a cat in a Strange Warehouse, as he called a book of collected essays that came out in 2001. The world is never a trusted or obvious place, but if you look good, there's always something surprising around. 'I don't think I'm a no-nonsense guy. There's too much noise inside of me'. Komrij, who has lived in Portugal since 1984, is one of the most productive Dutch writers. Since 1968 he has published several works annually. Recently Komrij's choice of the one-hundred best Dutch poems (2008) appeared, in addition to an anthology of Dutch children's poetry in over 1000 poems (2007) and Kakafonie (2006), an 'encyclopaedia of shit'. In 2005 he published Eendagsvliegen (Ephemera, literary diary entries) and a volume of poetry Fata Morgana.

Everyone knows the Happy Hooker, the New York madam, after which Xaviera Hollander’s bestseller from 1971 is named. It is a groundbreaking work, not in the least because Hollander continued to break taboos and advocate freedom of press and speech. The Happy Hooker has, in her own words ‘grown up’ and her latest book Child no More is an autobiographical work. She is also active in the theatre, at the prestigious Edinburgh festival as well as in her home in Amsterdam.
WN 2001

(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.

(Nijmegen, 1957). De vogelspin (The bird spider) is his first novel. In April 2000 the thriller Dossier Jeugdbende (File: Juvenile Gangs) was published, the first part of a series District Noord. Part two, Dossier Gifmoord (File: Poison Murder) was published a year later. He studied Dutch language and literature, Philosophy and Comparative Literature and works as a freelance literary journalist, writer and translator (Amin Maalouf, John Updike, among authors). He worked for Boekblad and writes for Ook dat nog (KRO Dutch television). Under the pseudonym Steven Klamm he writes horror stories for children.