(The Netherlands, 1987) debuted in 2013 with Vluchtautogedichten (Getaway Car Poems), which won the C. Buddingh' Prize. The jury praised his "boasting, swagger, and bravado." Van der Graaff escapes everyday reality in his very own getaway car — namely poetry — looking for new dimensions. His second volume Dood werk (Dead Work, 2015) won the J.C. Bloem Prize. He publishes poetry and prose in various magazines, performs regularly, and is editor and co-founder of the online literary magazine Samplekanon. His first novel Wormen en engelen (Worms and Angels, 2017) is a contemporary quest for the meaning of faith. In 2020 he published the poetry collection Nederland in stukken (The Netherlands in Pieces), followed by his second novel Onder asfalt (Under Asphalt, 2022). He curates compelling poetry recitation programmes each year for Writers Unlimited.

Go to website Maarten van der Graaff

(India, 1960) teaches and writes about classical Indian literature and has a deep knowledge of the myths and traditional stories of India. She has a PhD in South Asian languages and literature from the University of Chicago. Sattar translated many text from Sanskrit, including Valmiki's 1996 Ramayana. More recent publications include Lost Loves: Exploring Rama's Anguish (2011) and Uttara: The Book of Answers (2016). She also writes for children: her Ramayana for Children (2017) has been published worldwide. In 2008 she co-founded Sangam House, the first and only completely financially independent writer's residency programme in India. Every year, Sangam House moves to a new location; in 2019 it is in Bangalore.

(Uganda) grew up in Uganda and studied creative writing at the University of Lancaster in the UK; she received her doctorate in the same subject. In 2013 she received the Kwani Manuscript Project for her thesis project, The Kintu Saga. This prize is given to still-unpublished manscripts by African writers. Her manuscript was published as a novel, titled Kintu, in 2014. She has won various other prizes including the 2014 Commonwealth Short Story Prize for "Let's Tell This Story Properly" and the 2018 Windham-Campbell Prize for Fiction. A mixture of Ugandan oral storytelling traditions, folktakes, myths, biblical elements and history is characteristic of her work. She lives and works in Manchester, where she teaches creative writing at the university.

(Iraq, 1971) fled his country in 1998 after completing architecture studies, was given asylum in the Netherlands and settled there legally in 2007. Since then he has published poetry, novels and collections of his columns. He received the 2000 El Hizjra literature award and the 2011 Literature Prize of the European Union. In 2013 he published Liever niet, antwoordt de liefde (Maybe Not, Was Love's Reply), an anthology of refreshing love poetry. His novel Hoe ik talent voor het leven kreeg (Two Blankets, Three Sheets) tells of his experiences as an asylum seeker in the Netherlands. Al Galidi published the short story collection Duizend-en-een-nachtmerries (A Thousand and One Nightmares) in 2017 and a poem collection Neem de titel serieus (Take the title seriously) in 2018.

(1983) published the novels Grime, Quarantaine, Boy, De Wezenlozen and the non-fiction study Dit is geen dakloze (This is Not a Homeless Person). She graduated cum laude in 2005 as political scientist and is currently connected to the Urban Futures Studio, University of Utrecht. NRC wrote about Quarantaine: “With her third novel Wytske Versteeg proves she is one of the best authors of her generation regarding composition, subtlety, expressiveness and certainly style." Boy won the BNG Literatuurprijs; De Wezenlozen (2012) won the VrouwDebuutprijs and was longlisted for the AKO Literatuurprijs. Versteeg published in, among others newspaper NRC Handelsblad and magazines Vrij Nederland, De Correspondent and Opzij. Her works were translated in six languages.