finished his studies at the Arnhem Theatre School in 1976. During the first two years he acted regularly in film and television productions, but afterwards chose the stage. He worked for the Ro theatre company for ten years and acted under director Franz Marijnen in amongst others Tartuffe and Pinokkio, under Karst Woudstra in De opera van Smyrna and under Jos Thie and Antoine Uitdehaag Mordred in Merlijn . After this he stepped over as freelancer and acted in amongst others Amadeus and de Wijze Kater (The wise tomcat) . He teaches, directs and is head of the Rotterdam Centre for Theatre. In 2005, together with Peter Tuinman, Karel de Rooij and Peter de Jong, he acted in Samuel Beckett's Wachten op Godot (Waiting for Godot).

(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.

(1948-2010) studied sociology at the University of Amsterdam. After years of being a prominent criminologist, he turned to literature, which he considers to be a small step: 'Writers are criminals', wrote Franke in the newspaper Trouw (2000), referring to the moral freedom that writers permit themselves. In 1992 he made his debut with the novel Weg van loze dromen (Road of idle dreams). For his novel De verbeelding (The imagination) Franke was awarded the Generale Bank Literatuur prize, presently known as the AKO Literatuurprijs. He regularly writes for newspapers literary magazines, including a fortnightly column for the Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant. In 2004 a collection of his columns was published, entitled Waarom vrouwen betere lezers zijn (Why women are better readers). A year earlier he published his extensive novel Wolfstonen (Wolves tones) and in 2004 the collection of ultra-short stories Notulen (Minutes). Franke regularly exchanges the cherished solitude of his study with public appearances. Herman Franke died in 2010.

(1939, Bonnievale) is a South-African writer and painter with French citizenship. He studied at the University of Cape Town. He became a committed opponent of apartheid and left South Africa for Paris in the early 1960s. On returning to South Africa in 1975 he was arrested and sentenced to nine years of imprisonment. In his work The True Confessions of an Albino Terrorist he describes aspects of his imprisonment. After his release in 1982 he returned to Paris. Breytenbach wrote poetry, novels, essays and plays. His poems are rich in metaphores and are a complex mixture of references to Buddhism, Afrikaans idiomatic speech, and memories of the South African landscape. Breytenbach is also known as a painter. Many of his paintings portray surreal human and animal figures, often shown in captivity. He has been honored with numerous literary and art awards. Breytenbach is active in different organizations for South-African political exiles.

is a visual artist. An important part of her work consists of drawings and watercolours, predominantly figures and portraits. Through her work Marlene Dumas is able to deliver a sentient commentary on role patterns and social relations that have become habitual. With the "Black Drawings" (1991-92), which consist of 111 individual portraits, Dumas enters into a discourse about stereotyped racial classification and skin colour, that leaves no room for the appreciation of the individual. The series "Defining in the Negative" (1988) and "Strong Works" (1990) are a comment on traditional roles given to women, such as a model, muse or lover. Also the role of mother and sexuality are subjects for many of her drawings. The work of Marlene Dumas is often characterized by a combination of directness and intimacy. Her most recent work consist of a series of portraits of blindfolded Palestinian men and is a reaction to the situation in the Middle East.

(Amsterdam, NL 1953) is an evolutionary biologist and a writer. In his essays he presents himself as the missing link between the arts and the sciences. Again and again he places science in a broader cultural framework. In his collections of essays Vis in Bad (Fish in the Bath, 2014) and Kloten van de engel (Angels' Balls; 2007) he shows that culture is often much more natural than we think. In september 2016 a collection of his essays, The Other Left Side will be published by Seven Stories Press in New York. After graduation Goldschmidt left for Tanzania for five years to study cichlids (Percidae) in Lake Victoria. That study resulted in a Ph.D. thesis and a book combining his scientific findings with personal experiences: Darwin's Dreampond (1994). This debut was translated in English, French, German, Japanese and Chinese, among others. In 1993 Goldschmidt decided to give up his academic career to become a fulltime writer. In 2007 he delivered the Huizinga Lecture in Leiden entitled Pretending to pretend. Since 2009, Tijs Goldschmidt is advisor to the State Academy of Fine Arts in Amsterdam.

studied composition with Ernest W. Mulder and Leon Orthel and clarinet with Ru Otten at the Amsterdam Conservatory. As composer and improvisor (on soprano and alt saxophone) and as leader of the Boy Edgars Big Band and his own Theo Loevendie Consort, he became an internationally renowned jazzmusician. In 1968 he entered the world of the composed music with his composition Scaramuccia for clarinet and orchestra. Since then Loevendie has developed a varied oeuvre. Highlights are the song cyclus Six Turkish folkpoems (1977), the putting to sound of Andersens fairy-tale The Nightingale (1979) and an orchestra piece, Flexio (1979). In de eighties and nineties Loevendie developed more and more into a composer of opera. His first opera is Naima (1985). From 1970 up to 1988 Loevendie taught composition at the Rotterdam conservatory, and since then at the Royal conservatory in The Hague.

(Bergen op Zoom, 1948) is a Dutch prose writer. In 1984 she made her debut with Havinck, a novel about the lack of depth in relationships. The novel was favourably received. Her approach to prose is simple and realistic, describing reality in a businesslike and ironic style. This also applies to her novel De Feniks. Een familiekroniek (The phoenix. A family chronicle) (1985), however differing from Havinck, this story of three generations is not told in chronological order. In 1989 her novel De Lichtjager (The Lighthunter) was published. Her novels are about the inability to understand the nearest and dearest to us. In her most recent novel Casino (2004) Marja Brouwers illustrates the delusions of the consumer society of the last decennium, in which economic and sexual standards keep on shifting.