(Netherlands, 1951) descends from a former plantation-owning family in the Dutch East Indies. His father is Indonesian-Chinese and his mother is Dutch. Recurring themes in his work include alienation from family and the inability to identify with one's mother- or fatherland. His 1987 debut novel was Tamara's Lunapark. He compiled an anthology of Dutch colonial and post-colonial literature, East-Indian Ink, in 1998. In 2002 Indische Gezichten was published, a compilation of his Dutch post-colonial novels Vogels rond een vrouw (Birds around a Woman, 1991) and De onschuld van een vis (The Innocence of a Fish, 1995). These books create an unforgettable portrait of his father. His successful autobiographical novel De tolk van Java (The Interpreter from Java, 2016) received multiple awards and was adapted for theatre. In 2019, the diary Niemand bleef (Nobody stayed) was published in the Privé Domein series, for which he was awarded the Littéraire Witte Prijs 2020. In March 2024, Zwerfpost (Wandering Post) was released, a personal selection from 25 years of articles, blog posts, columns, essays, critiques, lectures, studies, sketches, polemics, travelogues, and portraits of unknown writers with divergent perspectives on the Netherlands versus Indonesia.

(Jakarta, 1954) debuted in Hollands Maandblad with several stories that ended up in the collection Grand Hotel Lembang (1979). He is working on a biography of Maria Dermoût at the moment. Since 1981 he writes reviews about drama and literature for NRC Handelsblad. In 1998 his collection of stories Eeuwig Indië (Eternal Indies) appeared.

Epe (1919). She lived on Sumatra and Java during her youth. She gained fame and success in 1955, with her novel De atlasvlinder (The Atlas Butterfly). She uses her numerous travel experiences for her fictional work, but she’s not a travel writer. She was awarded the Anna Bijns Prize for prose in 1997.
WN 1998

(Hilversum, 1952) published several books from her Indonesian background: Scherven van smaragd (Fragments of Emerald), Onder de blauwe Sarong (Under the blue sarong) and Kleurverschil (Different Colors). Stories of the older generation were collected in her book Indië was alles. Alles (Indonesia was everything. Everything). Ze died in 2019.
(WN 1998)

(Marken, 1958-2009) was a poet, a writer and a commentator, with a regular column on the Forum page and the book pages of the Volkskrant. Zeeman was the editor of the arts section of the Volkskrant and from 2006-2007 its Rome correspondent. In 2006 he and the writer Abdelkader Benali published an exchange of letters, exchanging ideas on politics, life, love and literature. In 2002 Zeeman received the Gouden Ganzenveer (Golden Goose Quill) for his merits for Dutch literature. Zeeman became well-known in the 1990s as the host of his monthly book programme 'Late at night after a short walk', later to be renamed 'Zeeman with books'. In 1991 he published his first volume of poetry, Beeldenstorm (Iconoclasm), winning him the C. Buddingh Prize. His second volume Verhoudingen (Relationships) appeared in 1995. In the same year he published short stories entitled De Verduistering (The Darkening). He died in 2009.