(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.

(Herschel, Zuid-Afrika, 1948) is a playwright, writer, academic, painter, filmer and one of the most important novellists in South Africa. At birth he was named as Zanemvula Kizito Gatyeni Mda, but his street friends in Soweto called him Zakes. He studied in the U.S.A., Great Britain, Lesotho and Capetown. His first collection of poems Bits of Debris appeared in 1986 and his first novella Ways of Dying appeared in 1995. Presently Zakes Mda commutes between Johannesburg, where he works as a dramatist, and Ohio, where he works as a tutor of English/creative writing. With his novel Het rode hart (The red heart)(2002) Mda won the Commonwealth Writers Prize Africa Regions and the South African Sunday Times Fiction Award. The Dutch translation of Ways of dying will be published in the spring of 2004 by De Geus publishers.
WIN2003

(Johannesburg, 1974-2005) received in 2001 the Statebonds prize for the best African debut for his first book Thirteen Cents (2000). It is a powerful short novel about the seamy side of Capetown. Despair, uncertainty and survival instinct are the themes in a setting of prostitutes, gangsters and hunger - but including moments of hope and happyness. His second novel The Quiet Violence of Dreams (2003) is about a student that experiences an indentity crisis. In Duiker's work the individual insanity can never be seperated from the improbable country in which his stories take place. The book was translated and published in the Netherlands with the title Het Stille Geweld van Dromen .
WN 2005

(Pretoria, South Africa, 1963) counts as one of the most talented (theater) writers of South Africa. In 1984 he made his debut with A Sinless Season . Works of Galgut that have been translated are: Het welluidende gekrijs van varkens en Gewapende stilte. De goede arts (The good doctor) (2003), the rights of which have been sold wordwide, has become his breakthrough and was nominated this year 2003 for the Man Booker Prize. Damon Galgut lives and works in Capetown.