(Zaandam, NL, 1972) is a professor of Korean Studies at the University of Leiden. He studied Japanese and Korean, and lived for a time in Seoul while earning a second Master's degree. Breuker collaborated on the first Korean-Dutch dictionary(2002). In 2006, he obtained his doctorate (with distinction) with When Truth is Everywhere: The formation of plural identities in medieval Korea, 918-1170. In 2008, Breuker worked as a researcher at Australia's National University (ANU). Then he worked on the research project Conceptualizing Northeast Asia: World history through the lens of Koryǒ and Liao. Breuker is the acting director of the project History as Social Practice: Unconventional historiographies of Korea. He is editor-in-chief of the e-magazine Korean Histories and an editor with the magazine East Asian History. In 2010 he received the KNAW Heineken Young Scientists Award for Historical Learning for research into Korean identity. Together with Imke van Gardingen he translates contemporary Korean literature. 

(China, 1976) studied English in Shanghai and social sciences in Amsterdam. She writes for English- and Chinese-language newspapers, magazines, and multimedia. Her first novel, Schemering boven Shangai (Shanghai Nocturne) was published in China in 2012 and will be released in the Netherlands in 2015. It tells the story of Lan, a thirtysomething single who returns to Shanghai after a decade in Europe. She is adopted and goes in search of her roots. East and West, sex and death, desire and estrangement, truth and deception are recurring themes in the novel. Yue also paints a picture of present-day life in China. She was a presenter on Chinese radio in Amsterdam and at the sex, art, and literature forum of the Amsterdam China Festival. She also works as an intercultural consultant.

(Indonesia, 1971) studied chemistry, mathematics, and physics at the Technical Institute in Bandung. Her novel Ode aan Leopold Von Sacher-Masoch (Ode to Leopold Von Sacher-Masoch) created quite a stir. As of page one, it's an explicit book full of strippers, child rape, and S&M. Some consider this book by the now-traditionally dressed Muslim woman to be pornography, although it also incorporates Greek and Nordic myths. In 2009 Rahayu published a collection of short stories, Lacrimosa, which combine ancient myths with science and technology. Her stories have also appeared in various Indonesian magazines. She works as a teacher.

(Austria, 1980) is considered a younger, female Haruki Murakami. She grew up in Austria, the daughter of a Japanese mother and an Austrian father. Her debut novel I Called Him Necktie is a bestseller in Germany and has been translated into seven languages. The novel is about a Japanese phenomenon: young people who shut themselves off from the world, somtimes sitting in a little room for years. Flašar describes how one such boy emerges after a two-year period of isolation and comes to sit in a park across from a salaryman, smartly dressed and holding a packed lunch. They stare at each other for days before falling into conversation about lives full of fear and failure, disappointment and shame. They have almost become friends when one day the wage slave no longer turns up. Flašar studied literary theory, Germanic studies and Romance languages. In 2008 she debuted the short story collection Ich bin (I Am), and in 2010 published the novella Okaasan - Meine unbekannte Mutter (Okaasan: My Unknown Mother).