(Haarlem, 1956) won the NS Publieksprijs in 2008 with his novel Overgave (Surrender, 2007), about the struggle between pioneers and Comanche Indians in 18th century Texas. His novel Vaslav (2010) is also inspired by a true story: the dramatic decision by the legendary ballet dancer Vaslav Nijinski to quit dancing. In 2008 Japins diaries 2000-2007 appeared in book form entitled Zoals dat gaat met wonderen (As it goes with miracles) and his short stories were reprinted as Singel Pocket. In 1997 Japin made his international breakthrough with The Two Hearts of Kwasi Boachi, a novel about two 19th century Ghanaian princes who were brought up as Dutchmen. It has been translated in over ten languages and adapted for opera, dance and the theatre. For Een schitterend gebrek (translated as In Lucia's Eyes, 2003) he recieved the Libris literature award. Japin studied at the Kleinkunstacademie and was an actor and singer before he started writing. Various of Japin's short stories have been adapted for the screen. Since April 2011 he is one of the makers of a satirical tv programme.

(Ankara, 1959) sings and plays traditional Turkish music, but likes to make outings to jazz and improvised music. In Turkey Üvez played for years with various dancing groups and orchestras, like the Ankara State Ensemble, before coming to the Netherland in 1989. He plays traditional Turkish string instruments like the baglama (or saz), cura, tar, cümbüs and ud, in addition to various percussion instruments. Üvez is not only a great expert in Turkish music, but also in other mediterranean rhythms like Balkan music. He plays in various ensembles and together with clarinettist Steven Kamperman founded the ensemble Barana & Co, mixing Turkish sounds with jazz, world music and improvisation. Üvez is a teacher of music in Groningen and Hoogezand and gives music workshops on a regular basis.

(Brummen, NL, 1959 - Amsterdam, 2016) was a poet, journalist, and media presenter. At a young age he debuted as a poet in the Dutch literary magazine Hollands Maandblad. Since then he has published books of poetry quite regularly, such as Neem me mee zei de hond (Take Me With You Said the Dog, 2010). After the publication of his first collection Inslag (Impact, 1985), he began working as an interviewer for the VPRO broadcasting company. Later he became head producer of the Radio 6 programme "De Avonden." Since 2005  he talked to writers on VPRO's book programme "Boeken" on both TV and radio. He put together Briefgeheimen (Postcard Secrets, 2007), a colourful compilation of postcards linked to a website where people can divulge their deepest secrets. Overkomst dringend gewenst (Return Voyage Urgently Requested), his anthology of the work of poet Jan Emmens, was published in 2012, and his most recent poetry collection, 's Middags zwem ik in de Noordzee (In the Afternoons I Swim in the North Sea) in 2014. Brands was one of the "Lonely Departure" poets who compose and present a final poetic tribute to people who pass away without friends or family.

(Belgium, 1972) is a writer, transdisciplinary artist and a film and theatre maker. She debuted with De Kleenex Kronieken (The Kleenex Chronicles, 2014), a family and village chronicle featuring Priscilla, the daughter of a Flemish father and a Senegalese mother. She published the children's book Sala & Monk in 2020. In Echo - essays, speeches en brieven (Echo - essays, speeches and letters, 2021), named after the poem Echoes by Audre Lorde, she places her finger on a sore spot. Not only is the white gaze still dominant in our society, Black women are doubly disadvantaged: they aren't white and they aren't men. Beks shows how systematic is not to be seen or heard. Her essay De kleine Morrison: een wegwijzer in het lezen van haar werk vanuit Zwart perspectief (The Little Morrison: A Signpost to Reading Her Work from a Black Perspective, 2023) offers readers of Toni Morrison, the most famous female black writer and Nobel Prize for Literature winner who died in 2019, insight into her life and work. Beks shows that in everything she does, Morrison invites self-critical reflection on language, structure, power, gender, race, law and injustice, blackness, the white gaze and the meaning of oral and written narratives.