(Amsterdam, NL, 1963) studied Dutch language and literature in Amsterdam. He writes reviews, interviews, columns and obituaries, and heads the books section of De Volkskrant newspaper. In 2011 he published Eindelijk Sneeuw (Snow at Last: twelve wintry stories about artists, writers, and books, from Willem Witsen's cityscapes to the tears of Mrs. Dickens). Exerpts from his reviews and interviews were published in the books Langzaam lopen is al verdacht (Walking Slowly is Suspicious, 1999), De ongeneeslijke lezer – een werkboek (The Incurable Reader: a workbook, 2002), Het woord is aan de schrijver (The Writer Has the Floor, 2005), and De Broodschrijver (The Hack, 2006), about Bart Chabot's biography of Herman Brood. In 2012 he published Kreten uit een urn (Cries from an Urn), a lecture on the role of the critic in our time. His text "Naar boven mit Brakman" ("Up With Brakman") accompanied the 2015 unveiling of the Brakman monument in Enschede.

(Israel, 1972) is an Israeli writer from a Jewish-Iranian family. Besides being a successful novelist, she writes poetry, created a children's book, and works as a presenter and scriptwriter for TV. Her third novel Grensleven (Border Life), which came out in the Netherlands in 2016, caused great controversy in Israel. A commission wanted to place the award-winning book about the love affair of a Jewish woman and a Palestinian man on Israeli high-school reading lists. But the Israeli Ministry of education prevented it because they felt it would encourage intercultural marriage. One year later, it was put on the list after all and has since become a best-seller. Her first two novels have also been published in Dutch: 1995's Perzische bruiden (Persian Brides) and 1999's Onze bruiloften (Our Weddings).