(South Africa, 1952) is a poet, writer, academic and a cherished reciter. Her book Country of My Skull (2000, adapted for film in 2004) is a personal account of the proceedings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. She published her autobiographical memoirs as A Change of Tongue (2003). Krog has won many prizes, including the Hertzog prize in South Africa and the 2018 Gouden Ganzenveer in the Netherlands. An anthology of her poetry was published in Dutch in 2010, titled Hoe zeg je dat (How Do You Say That), and Begging to be Black, the sequel to Country of My Skull and A Change of Tongue.

Harry Mulisch (1927) is one of the most important Dutch post WWII writers. He has written fifteen novels Archibald Strohalm (1952), Het stenen bruidsbed (1959), Bericht aan de rattenkoning (1966), Twee vrouwen (1975), De aanslag (1982), De ontdekking van de hemel (1992) and Siegfried (2001), among others. In addition, he has published poetry, short stories, essays and plays. With De ontdekking van de hemel (The Discovery of Heaven) he won the 1993 Multatuli Prize. In 1995 he received the Prijs der Nederlandse Letteren (Prize of Dutch Letters). In 2007 he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Amsterdam. In his life Mulisch has received numerous other prizes and decorations. Four of his novels were adapted for film and his work has been translated in some thirty languages. WWII, which he the son of a jewish mother and a German father has shaped him profoundly, supplying the material for a large part of his oeuvre.

(Leeuwarden, 1943) until 2009 headed the Institut Néerlandais in Paris. Previously she headed the Dutch Literary Production and Translation Fund. In that capacity she has given Dutch literature abroad a face. Wester studied French at the Amsterdam Free University. For a long time she reviewed French literature for the weekly magazine Vrij Nederland. Annually she anthologizes the best Dutch and Flemish travel stories. In 2000 the French government made her Officier des Arts et des Lettres; in 2001 she was made a Knight in the Order of Orange Nassau.

(France, 1971) is an award-winning British-Turkish novelist and storyteller. She has published 21 books, 13 of which are novels and her books have been translated into 58 languages. The Island of Missing Trees was a finalist for the Costa Award, British Book Awards and a Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick. 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and RSL Ondaatje Prize; and was Blackwell’s Book of the Year. The Forty Rules of Love was chosen by BBC among the 100 Novels that Shaped Our World. The Architect’s Apprentice was chosen for The Queen’s Reading Room. Shafak holds a PhD in political science and she has taught at various universities in Turkey, the US and the UK, including St Anne's College, Oxford University, where she is an honorary fellow. She also holds an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Bard College. Shafak is a Fellow and a Vice President of the Royal Society of Literature and has been chosen among BBC’s 100 most inspiring and influential women. An advocate for women's rights, LGBTQ+ rights and freedom of expression, Shafak is an inspiring public speaker and twice TED Global speaker. She contributes to major publications around the world and she was awarded the medal of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. In 2024, Shafak was awarded the British Academy President's Medal for "her excellent body of work which demonstrates an incredible intercultural range". Her website can be found at www.elifshafak.com and her Substack is called "Unmapped Storylands".