(India, 1970) grew up and was educated in Calcutta, Oxford and Cambridge. His book The Lives of Others, about life in Calcutta, was nominated for the prestigious Booker Prize and highly praised in the international press. The novel, which will be released in Dutch translation during the festival, portrays a bourgeois Calcutta family. When one of the sons joins a radical political group, its already complicated relationships come into sharp focus. The ruling hierarchy of the family, three generations of which live under one roof, reflects the complex Indian caste sytem. Mukherjee's first novel, A Life Apart, is about an Indian man who moves from Calcutta to London to build a new life. Mukherjee is a critic for The Times and The Sunday Telegraph, and has written for The Daily Telegraph, The Observer, The New York Times and other papers.

(Romania, 1973) is a writer, poet and columnist. Her first collection of poetry was published in 1993, after which she devoted herself to prose. In 2005, she moved to The Hague with her Dutch husband André. There she decided to write in Dutch rather than Romanian. In her novels, she has successfully developed a personal and candid writing style. Her publications include Lief kind van mij (My Dear Child, 2012), De ziekte van Kortjakje (Kortjakje's Illness, 2013), Tascha. De roof uit de Kunsthal (Tascha: The Robbery at the Kunsthal, 2015), Al mijn vaders en Picasso's keerzijde (All My Fathers and Picasso's Other Side, 2019), and Liefdesverklaring aan de Nederlandse taal (Declaration of Love to the Dutch Language, 2021). After the loss of André, she wrote her latest novel Gewone Hollandse jongens (Ordinary Dutch Boys, 2025) about grief, physical desire and the search for stability in the company of others. Her articles and columns appear in Tirade, De Groene Amsterdammer and Den Haag Centraal, among others.

Go to the website of Mira Feticu
Instagram: @mirafeticu

(Angola, 1960) has published an extensive body of work comprising novels (15 titles), short stories and novellas (7 collections) and numerous journalistic pieces (including for the Brazilian newspaper O Globo). As an important literary voice and a leading author of the Portuguese-speaking world, his at times magical-realist narratives, often rich in historical context, humor and references to Angola, also appeals to many readers outside that world: his work has been translated into at least 25 languages. In A General Theory of Oblivion (2016), a woman with agoraphobia barricades herself in her flat in Luanda. She remains there for thirty years while her country goes through various political stages, from colony to socialist republic and from civil war to peace and capitalism. His latest novel is Mestre dos batuques (2024, Master of Drums). In it, Agualusa rewrites history and describes how drums played an important role in the resistance against the Portuguese colonisers. He also collaborated with Mia Couto on the screenplay for José Miguel Ribeiro's magical realist animated feature film Nayola (2022), which explores this theme.

Watch the trailer of the film Nayola on YouTube
Instagram: @jose_eduardo_agualusa

(Yugoslavia, 1949) is a Croatian writer and journalist who divides her time between Stockholm and Zagreb. From 1982 to 1992 she wrote on feminist issues for Croatian media. After receiving threats due to her position on the rape of women during the Balkan War, she moved to Sweden in the early 1990s. She now writes for a wide range of publications, including La Stampa and Frankfurter Allgemeine. The war in the former Yugoslavia is the main focus of her work, both in her novels and non-fiction. She gave voice to women abused during the Balkan War in As If I Am Not There. And in They Would Never Hurt a Fly, she asks how people can be capable of extreme crimes in circumstances of war, referring to cases before the ICTY in The Hague. Nine books by Drakulić were published in Dutch between 1993 and 2003.

(Zimbabwe, 1971) debuted in 2009 with the short-story collection An Elegy for Easterly, followed by her first novel The Book of Memory (2015) and another story collection, Rotten Row (2016). Her new book Out of Darkness, Shining Light tells the story of the perilous, months-long trek made in 1873 by 69 workers to transport the body of the explorer David Livinstone from central Africa to the Zanzibar coast, so it could eventually be buried in England. "I write the history of the black people of Zimbabwe, those about whom nobody ever speaks." Gappah studied law in Zimbabwe and Cambridge, worked as a lawyer, and lives in Berlin as artist-in-residence. She has won many international prizes for her work.

(Amsterdam, NL, 1986) is considered the great hope for Dutch literature. In 2011 he reveived De Tegel, a journalism prize, together with Daniël van der Meer for the interview series Het Decennium (The Decade). His 2010 debut novel Een Zondagsman (A Sunday Man), about a psychiatrist whose wife is in a coma, garnered widespread praise. His 2013 autobiographical novel De Vergeting (The Forgetting), about the day he lost his memory, was also enthusiastically received. 70 was published the same year, part three of a trilogy he wrote together with Jamal Ouariachi and David Pefko. In 2014, his hefty novel Het land 32 (Land 32) was both hailed and lambasted in the press. Together with his younger brother Thomas, he then wrote the thriller Ultimatum. His latest work, Een verlate reis (A Belated Trip), is an account of his visit to Auschwitz. In 2015, for De Volkskrant newsaper, he produced an interview series about the world of the unemployed and a reportage of his visit to Dutch troops in Mali.

(Russia, 1961) is a Ukrainian writer world famous for the mix of harsh realism and absurdist humour in his novels and non fiction books. He is a respected commentator on the situation in his country. In The President's Last Love, Kurkov employs humour and cynicism to describe how a boy manages to work his way up to become the most powerful man in the country. Ukraine Diaries: Dispatches from Kiev, his eyewitness account of political unrest in the Ukraine, was published in 2014. Dairy of an Invasion (2022) and Our daily war (2024) are collections of Kurkov's writings and broadcasts. In 2024, he published The Silver Bone, the first part of The Kyiv Mysteries, his series of crime novels in historical settings. The second part The Stolen Heart will be published in 2025; the third part The Public Sauna Case is in development.

(1959) is a composer, arranger and musician whose work blends many influences, including jazz, classical and folk music from all corners of the world. He was composer-in-residence of LOD Music Theatre in Ghent from 1989 to 2013. Among other projects, he created musical theatre productions with actor and director Koen De Sutter and Alain Platel of Les Ballets C de la B. His own folk fanfare Banda Azufaifo and the heartwarming House of Hidden Tunes I & II combine various musical styles, from Mozart to Camarón de la Isla. In 2001 he won the Louis Paul Boon prize for “his social engagement and his bond with mankind, evident in his whole oeuvre.” Three years later he was awarded the Grand Theatre Festival Prize. Van der Harst was the civic composer of Ghent in 2007 and 2008. He has made various CDs, including ones featuring Christmas and New Year songs from different cultures. At the festival, he will play and create music as musician-in-residence, both making and choosing music for various programmes.

(Amsterdam, NL, 1962) studied jazz guitar at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. He admires Django Reinhardt but is also inspired by contemporary guitarists like Jim Hall, Jimmy Raney, Pat Martino, and Boulou Ferre, as well as Eastern European (gypsy) music. Voet has played in a number of his own ensembles (Cravat Quartet with Hady Mouallem and Deux-Creme-Deux with guitarist Henk de Geus) and performed with guitarists Jimmy Rosenberg and Fapy Lafertin, klezmer clarinettist Marcel Salomon, and artist/violinist Armando. Together with Dick van der Harst, he worked with the musical theatre troupe Het Muziek LOD. His biggest current project is Reinier Voet and Pigalle44, a collaboration with guitarist Jan Brouwer.

(Belgium, 1984) studied with Dina Grossberger and Katelijne Van Laethem in Leuven, and was coached by Jard van Nes and Catrin Wyn Davies. She prefers contemporary opera and musical theatre but is also very active in Baroque repertoire. Her own Baroque ensemble Bel Ayre, which was named Selected Promising Ensemble at Antwerp's Festival Laus Polyphoniae in 2011, performed at Bozar in Brussels, the Rotterdam Opera Days, and the Flanders Festival in Mechelen. She has worked as a soloist with James Wood, Erik Van Nevel, Marcel Pérès, Titus Engel, Il Gardellino, and the vocal ensembles Encantar and Psallentes, among others. She was selected for the prestigious Lucerne Festival Academy in 2014, where she sang first soprano in Luciano Berio’s Coro under Sir Simon Rattle. She has sung and created works by contemporary composers like Frank Nuyts, Thomas Smetryns, and Alain Craens, and  worked on various productions of Het Muziek LOD, Transparant Music Theatre, and the Flemish Opera. 

(Belgium, 1962) is a versatile performer. He works in various disciplines, such as musical theatre, dance, and contemporary classical and improvised music. He has contributed to productions of the Scapino Ballet, Walpurgis, Xynix, Amsterdam Theatre Group and the Spectra Ensemble. As a solo percussionist he has played the biggest venues of Europe and Australia. In Belgium, Konink mostly plays music written especially for him by composers such as Peter Vermeersch, Luc Brewaeys, Frank Nuyts, Philippe Boesmans, and Fredic Rzewski. He has played in various school programmes with Quatuor Danel as well as a percussion duet with Marcel Andriessen. As a composer, he has written theatre music for Ensemble Leporello, Teneter, and Compagnie Boktor. Konink also teaches at the Ghent Conservatory.

(Belgium) is a violist and cellist. He began his studies with the famous violist Pierre Penassou. Then he performed with various string ensembles, especially in the classical arena. As a member of his own group, Quatuor Danel, he played on pianist Kris Defoort's Conversations/Conservations album. He teaches chamber music at the Brussels Conservatory.