(Congo-Brazzaville, 1966) is one of the best-known Franco-African writers. In novels such as Verre cassé, African Psycho and Black Bazaar he sketches his African youth and the life of the African inhabitants of Paris, the city where he went to study in 1989. In 2012 he returned to his birthplace Pointe-Noire. His novel Petit  Piment (Little Pepper, 2015) resulted from that trip. He very humorously describes the life of a boy who flees an orphanage to move to the coastal City of Pointe-Noire, where he lives among thieves and whores. The novel is dedicated to the boys of the Côte Sauvage, the edge of that city, with whom the author spoke. Mabanckou teaches French literature at the University of California Los Angeles. His work has been translated into more than ten languages.

(Meppel, NL, 1952) is a writer, agricultural scientist and columnist. In her novels De Kosmopolieten (The Cosmopolitans, 2003), De Tuin van de Sultan van Rome (The Roman Sultan's Garden, 2005) and De Utopisten (The Utopians, 2007) idealism, power, and friendship play important roles. Subsequently, she published Nieuwe Spijswetten (New Laws for Food, 2006), Hamburgers in het paradijs. Voedsel in tijden van schaarste en overvloed (Hamburgers in paradise. Food in times of shortage and abundance, 2012), Kruisbestuiving. Over kennis, kunst en het leven (Pollination. About knowledge, art and life, 2014) and various others works among which Verraad, Verleiding en Verzoening (Treason, Temptation and Reconciliation, 2010, with Helen Westerik). Fresco's Paradijs (Fresco's Paradise, 2013) is a six-part documentary TV-series broadcast by Human, published with an accompanying text. In 2014 she was appointed chair of the executive board at Wageningen University and Research. Her latest novel De Idealisten (The Idealists) will be published late January 2018.

(Eindhoven, NL, 1973) is a leading historian and political philosopher. From 2010 to 2015 he was the speechwriter and political advisor to the first chairman of the European council, Herman Van Rompuy. After his time in Brussels, he became Professor of Foundations and Practices of the EU and its Institutions at the University of Leiden. Van Middelaar is a political commentator for national newspaper NRC Handelsblad (Netherlands) and De Standaard (Belgium). His Passage to Europe, about the political developments in Europe of the last 50 years, has been multiply awarded and translated. His book De nieuwe politiek van Europa (The New European Politics) describes how European leaders are rushing from one incident to the next. Van Middelaar offers clarity and perspective.

(Haarlem, NL, 1961) is a columnist, presenter, essayist and writer. In 2015 he came out of the closet for the second time: he publicly acknowledged that he believes in god, even if this is "not done" in intellectual circles. Since mid-2016 he has been a regular columnist with the Volkskrant newspaper. In his 2007 book Zon, zee en oorlog (Sun, Sea and War) he describes experiences in places like Capetown, where he discovered that his biological father was South African. Sanders, who was adopted by Dutch foster parents, studied philosophy and political science and has written for various dailies and weeklies since 1982. He has published story and essay collections, novels, journalistic pieces, and the 2013 book Iets meer dan een seizoen (A Little More than One Season).

(Ukraine, 1974) studied at the music academies in Poltava, Kiew and Enschede. In 1999 he released his first CD, Awakening featuring works by a.o. Vivaldi, Bach, Pachelbel and Piazolla. He specialized in Argentine tango on bayan and bandoneon at Codarts Rotterdam. As a soloist, he won the 2005 National Accordion Competition in The Netherlands with his rendition of Victor Vlasov's "Five Views of the Land of the Gulag Archipelago", also the title piece of his 2012 CD Gulag. He prefers genre-transcending projects in which visual art, literature and music enhance and flow into one another. He developed such projects with writer and visual artist Armando, sculptor and illustrator Koenraad Tinel, and with writers, journalists and filmmakers, including Stefan Hertmans, Cherry Duyns and Peter d'Hamecourt, among others. For his double-CD De sneeuwstorm (The Snowstorm, 2022), Lysenko arranged and played on bayan Georgi Sviridov's music to Alexander Pushkin's story of the same name, recited by Martinus Nijhoff Prize-winning Pushkin translator Hans Boland. With fundraising events and benefit performances, Oleg raises money to pay for an ambulance for the Ukrainian region of Poltava, where his family comes from.

(Kortrijk, Belgium, 1962) won the 2017 Woutertje Pieterse Prize for her picture book Stella. In it, a drowning person is fished out of the sea and taken in by a foster family. She has been teaching graphic design at the Hoger St.-Lucas Institute in Ghent since 1992. Dendooven is famous for and has won many awards for her children's book illustrations. She received the Gouden Penseel (Golden Brush) in 2000 for her work in De verliefde prins (The Prince in Love) by Ron Langenus. She also writes plays and children's books and illustrates adult books and newspaper columns.

(Belgium) received her Bachelor degree from the Maastricht Consesrvatory. After that, she took masterclasses in interpreting Bach, Haydn and Mozart. Currently she is finishing her Masters with Lenie van den Heuvel, Dorothee Mields, Peter Kooij and Pascal Bertin at the Royal Conservatory in Den Haag. De Baerdermaeker has a strong interest in Early Music and Baroque interpretations and has played solo concerts in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and France. In 2013 she set up the "Etereo" organization in Belgium, which organizes concerts and small festivals as well as school performances to bring classical music to young people. Besides Early Music, De Baerdemaeker is interested in contemporary compositions; in spring 2016, she was a soloist in the Dutch premiere of Harald Weiss' Requiem.

(Belgium) took cello lessons at the Lemmens Institute in Leuven as of age 15. She earned her Bachelor degree at the Royal Conservatory Antwerp and her Master at the Royal Conservatory Brussels. She has taken master classes in the Netherlands, Poland, France, Spain, Belgium and Belarus. In the summer of 2012 she met the world-famous cello teacher Vladimir Perlin, with whom she is still studying. Since 2014, she has been a cellist with the chamber orchestra Young Belgian Strings, directed by Dirk Van de Moortel, and is also a member of the Etereo Ensemble. She is co-founder and cellist with the cello quartet BRUXELLO, with which she performs at home and abroad. She also regularly performs with the visual Artist Koenraad Tinel. Sturtewagen plays an instrument built in Brussels  in 1911 by Hilaire Darche.