(Montevideo, 1970) in her novels deals with the big issues of South America, the continent where she was born. Trujillo came to the Netherlands at age six. After the end of military rule she returned to her fatherland at age fifteen. There her first novella in Spanish was published and awarded a prize. She returned to the Netherlands to study at the Amsterdam film school. In 2002 her Dutch debut followed, De Bastaard van Mal Abrigo (The Bastard of Mal Abrigo), about two little boys from a poverty-stricken cocaine village, who eventually become president and minister of defence. This time she won the Marten Toonder/Geertjan Lubberhuizen prize. De terugkeer van Lupe García (The Return of Lupe García, 2009) is about a woman returning to her native country in South America to make a documentary about the guerrilla struggle there. This novel was nominated for the AKO Literature Prize and won the BNG Literature Prize. In 2014 she published De zangbreker, and her latest book Vrije radicalen (Free radicals) will appear January 2017.

(1983) is the author of a critically acclaimed body of novels and essays, deputy editor of weekly news magazine De Groene Amsterdammer and one of the regular creators of the podcast Boeken FM. He made his debut in 2010 with Clausewitz. De Vries has been on the editorial staff of De Groene Amsterdammer since 2007, first as art editor, then as book editor and, since 2019, as deputy editor-in-chief. His publications include the novel De republiek (The Republic), the essay collection Vechtmemoires (Fight Memoires), the novel Oude meesters (Old Masters, winner Gouden Boekenuil) and the virtuoso Hogere machten (Higher Powers), a novel in which a love affair from the 1930s burns through turbulent decades while the world changes fast. In 2023, De Vries received the Frans Kellendonk Prize for his entire oeuvre.

(Syria, 1973) was a sports and dance teacher in Syria when she came to the Netherlands in 1999. As a child she published stories and poems in Arabic, illustrating them herself with charcoal. In Holland she fell in love with the Dutch language and made her debut with the novel The seducer of Damascus. The main character is the ud player Balsam, who is constantly looking for sexual contentment. In Holland this farmer's son meets his compatriot, the cosmopolitan Barna, who also struggles with her sexuality. The Dutch culture, being much more open than the Syrian, provides her with the freedom she has always been looking for. Daad Kajo regularly performs in the Dutch media to talk about the political situation in her country. She grew up in Hassake, a village in Syria, as a member of the Christian Assyrian minority. In Nijmegen she worked as an educational assistant in second language acquisition.

(Afghanistan, 1983) escaped her fatherland at the age of twelve and came to live in the Netherlands with her parents. She studied journalism and worked for ANP, the Dutch news agency, Omroep West, a regional channel, and NOS Journaal, the news section of Dutch public television. In 2009 Akefi returned to Kabul for the first time. There she wrote several short stories and eventually a novel, which appeared in 2011: Geen van ons keek om (None of Us Looked Back), the story of two girls living next-door to each other is partly autobiographical. The bosom friends are literally torn apart when the mujahedin bomb Kabul. Like Khaled Hosseini Akefi describes gruesome details about war crimes and abuse of women. Tahmina Akefi is working on a second novel, which will appear in 2013.

(The Netherlands, 1984), also known as Eus, is a writer, columnist, and presenter. His semi-autobiographical and critically acclaimed picaresque novel Eus (2012) is about a Turkish teenager from the east of the country who tries to escape his fate as a marginal figure in an unorthodox way. He also wrote the novels Turis (2016) and Afslag 23 (2023) and recently the short story collection Mijn moeder, de kleine reus (2025): bestsellers that appealed to both young and older audiences. Eus is also a columnist for various newspapers and magazines, and a television presenter with successful programmes such as De Neven van Eus, Sterren op het Doek, De Geknipte Gast, Home of Eus, and Eus’ Boekenclub. He will be performing his theater show De Klassenmigrant until mid-2026. In addition to being a personal retrospective, it is also a plea for equal opportunities and cultural development.

Go to the website of Özcan Akyol
Instagram: @ozcanakyol

(South Africa, 1965) in his first novels Zes beetwonden en een tetanusprik (Six Fang Marks and a Tetanus Shot) and Zacht als staal (The Big Stick) links the worlds he grew up in. He grew up in South Africa as the child of Dutch parents and returned to the Netherlands 25 years ago. Both novels are rampant with violence and are written in a slashing style. Characters overlap. In his latest novel Zendingsdrang (Missionary Zeal) violence also plays a prominent part. A war correspondent ends up in an institute where his responsibility is being examined. In Zendingsdrang there are a number of diatribes, one of which De Nooy turned into a songtext. De Nooy studied journalism at Rhodes University in South Africa and psychology at the University of Amsterdam. Before becoming a writer he worked as a translator and a cartoonist.
www.richarddenooy.com

(Uganda, 1982) is since 2024 one of the three resident hosts of Kunststof, Dutch national public network NTR's culture and media programme, which is broadcast Monday to Thursday between 7 and 8 pm on NPO Radio 1. Andrew is no stranger to the Dutch media landscape: at 17, he was discovered as a talented debater in national Dutch debating competition Op weg naar het Lagerhuis (On the way to the Congress). After that, he soon ended up in radio. His interests and network extend from hip-hop, jazz and reggae to various types of classical music, literature, politics, theatre and visual arts. For years, he has been a regular at North Sea Jazz and many other (music) festivals; for his NPO Soul & Jazz-podcast series Makkinga Moves, he conducted countless interviews with artists.

(Zeist, NL, 1973) was a comedian and worked in advertising before writing his 2003 debut De Duiker (The Diver), which recreates a striking portrait of an era through the distinctive speech of three students. The romantic tragedy Aphinar followed in 2007, in which Knol alternates between angry interior monologues and a sensual and tarnished love story. His major novel Alles kan kapot (Everything Kaputt) was published in 2011, about the fates of three generations of a family. The book owes a literary debt to Céline, Woolf, and David Foster Wallace (among others), but above all it shows off an authentic and innovative voice. Anything is possible in Knol's work. The dead can rise from their ashes and demand to regain their position in a book. Knol also likes to play with language and style. The Dutch Literary Fund chose Alles kan kapot as one of the best Dutch books of 2011. Besides novels, Knol writes short stories, essays, blogs, and criticism, and is an editor with the literary magazine Tirade. He's currently at work on a new novel.

(1964) is a guitarist, composer, actor, arts manager and agent. Right now he plays in the band Brandjes and organises the Kofferbak-feesten (car boot parties). As an arts manager he has done projects for New Cool Collective, Benjamin Herman, Zuco 103, Cmon and Kypski and many others. As a musician Vincent Kruger toured at home and abroad in various and widely varied formations.