(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".

(Eindhoven, 1952) attended a theatre director in Amsterdam and after that worked ten years for various theatre companies as a director. During that decade she wrote her first short stories. In 1985 she made her debut with the collection of stories Het limonadegevoel en andere verhalen (The lemonade feeling and other stories). She was awarded the Geertjan Lubberhuizen prize for this. Van der Meer became well known through her novel-in-stories Eilandgasten (Island guests). Her books have been translated in, among others, French, German and Spanish. Next to writing, she teaches at the Ritcs (film and television academy) in Brussels, Belgium. Since her writers' debut she is a PEN Nederland member and is a board member since 2016. She recently succeeded Manon Uphoff as PEN Nederland President.

is a journalist and since 1980 writes for the newspaper NRC Handelsblad about her great passion: film. Since 1995 she is chief art editor of the same newspaper. In the popular feature 'Aan de wandel ' (Rambling) she describes trekking in the Netherlands and the rest of the world. Roodnat also writes literature. Her first novel 't Is zo weer nacht (It will soon be night again) was awarded the Geertjan Lubberhuizen prize and the Debutant prize in 2002. In 1995 she published De bergrede in het licht van de vedantaleer (The sermon on the mount seen from out the vedanta principles), about the most important Hinduistic beliefs and philosophy. This year her second novel was published, entitled Sterrenschot, which is loosely based on historical fragments of the family of her husband Erik van Zuylen.