(The Netherlands, 1941) is a satirist and writer. Already in his school days he formed a cabaret duo with Wim de Bie, who died in 2023. They gained great fame, influence and popularity as satirists in The Netherlands, first on the radio and, as of 1965, on TV. From the mid-1960s onward, Van Kooten published works such as Treitertrends, short satirical pieces in the Haagse Post, and bestselling short-story collections. The successful collections Modermismen and Meer modermismen followed in the 1980s. In 1998, Van Kooten stopped appearing on television. His children's book Het Schaampaard (The Shameless Horse) was published in 1999. The anthologies Karrevrachten pennevruchten (2017) and Sterk verdund (2018) are describe as "witty and pointed, with an insane pleasure in language, touching and awkward in doses, but above all, irresistibly funny."

(Nijmegen, 1957). De vogelspin (The bird spider) is his first novel. In April 2000 the thriller Dossier Jeugdbende (File: Juvenile Gangs) was published, the first part of a series District Noord. Part two, Dossier Gifmoord (File: Poison Murder) was published a year later. He studied Dutch language and literature, Philosophy and Comparative Literature and works as a freelance literary journalist, writer and translator (Amin Maalouf, John Updike, among authors). He worked for Boekblad and writes for Ook dat nog (KRO Dutch television). Under the pseudonym Steven Klamm he writes horror stories for children.

(Belgium, 1947) is a writer and translator. Formerly he was also a journalist and newsreader with the Flemish television journal. He became well known as the author of well-documented books about Belgium and Brussels. In 1989's Het Belgisch labyrint (The Belgian Labyrinth), he analyzes his country of birth with passion and erudition. Mijn Nederland (My Netherlands) appeared in 2005, a response to the request to explain Holland to the desperate Dutch. With 1991's Verhalen van het Heggeland (Stories from Heggeland), but even more so with 1997's Altrapsodie, he made his name as a novelist. In his poetry, he breaks with a society losing itself in "disastrous modernization." In various debates he's stated his belief in a Greater Netherlands, a Benelux, in which the German, French and Dutch languages and cultures would enrich one another. In 2007 his daughter Judith Vanistendael published the graphic novel De maagd en de neger (The Virgin and the Negro), based on a short story of her father's about the love between and economics student and a political refugee from Togo. His collection Het was wat (That Was Something) has been nominated for the 2016 VSB Poetry Prize.

(Arnhem, NL 1953) had his international breakthrough with The Dinner, a novel that spent weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, has been published in 37 countries, and has been adapted for stage and screen. The dark story of boys from a good family who murder a drifter mainly addresses the question of how responsible parents are for the misdeeds of their children. Adolescent behaviour was also the theme of Koch's debut novel, Red ons, Maria Montanelli (Save Us, Maria Montanelli, 1989). In Zomerhuis met zwembad (Summer Cottage with Pool, 2011), he again showed how easily successful people can fall from grace. His characters inevitably say or do unexpected things, which is also the case in his short-story collection Korte geschiedenis van het bedrog (A Short History of Deception, 2013). In his latest novel, Geachte heer M. (Dear Mr. M.), he takes aim at Dutch writers. Koch is also a columnist and an actor, as well as the creator of Jiskefet, an absurdist public-television series.