(Hoorn, 1968) is a journalist who started his career at local radio station Amsterdam FM; after that he became editor of De Digitale Stad, hosted AT5's newshow and talkshows. Then he returned to making radio: first at BNR Nieuwsradio and afterwards at VPRO's programme De Avonden which he presented every Monday and Friday. Since 2015 Van Kan is radio news show host at national public broadcaster NOS; he also can be heard as voice over during TV news shows. Spring 2016, he hosted literary TV programme Boeken. Next to this, Van Kan is active as editor of literary magazines. Until 2007 he was part of the editorial board of De Tweede Ronde. Afterwards he moved to literary magazine Tirade. Together with Wim Brands he is co-editor of Nederland. Een objectief zelfportret in 51 voorwerpen (The Netherlands. An objective autoportrait in 51 objects), a collection of texts about typically Dutch objects by the same number of writers.

(1970) makes radio and television programmes about subjects that touch her personally. Such as Drona & ik (Drona & Me), a film portrait of a nine year old autistic boy, seen through the eyes of his elder brother of twelve. Often children play a role in her work. Van Campen succeeds in building a lot of tension, as she did in Van de Wolven. Tsjetsjeens fotoalbum in geluid (Of Wolves, Chechnian Photo Album in Sound) in which a sniper keeps aiming his gun at a mother and child for a long time. The director likes to shift her boundaries, but sometimes chooses subjects which are very close to herself. An example of this is Terreur in de kerk (Terror in the Church) on the intricacies in a monastery where he father retires for a while. With Eeuwige Moes (Eternal Mash), a portrait of a Dutch vegetable grower who decides to emigrate to Sweden internationally had a lot of success. Van Campen studied history and worked for several Dutch networks duch as NMO, NPS, Radio Noord-Holland and VPRO. Since 2003 she has been part of Desmet, a radio collective founded by herself, among others. Her work has received various prizes at home and abroad.

(Boston, 1976) calls his stage his pulpit, his pen his temple, the paper his sanctuary and poems his confession. Omékongo Dibinga grew up in a warm intellectual family that came to the US after having fled Congo. Although he himself had a happy youth, in the US he recently witnessed cruelties against family members and members of the African community. This prompted him to speak out on behalf of ‘all those voiceless people.’ With his poems and performances the poet and rapper wants to promote dialogue, bring together the various population groups and make people think. His performances have taken him to every corner of the world. He also performed in various radio and tv programmes, e.g. CNN and the BBC. Meanwhile he has recorded six CDs with hiphop and poems of his own. His first album, A Young Black Man’s Anthem, in 2003 won the Cambridge Poetry Award. His first collection of poetry, From the Limbs of my Poetree he published independently in 2004. It was followed by another anthology of poetry by students and a guide for young job seekers. In 2009 he launched the GROW Towards Your Greatness project, a CD and book to motivate young people to get the most out of life. He writes and performs in English, French and Swahili and recites some fragments in Wolof. His great examples are Maya Angelou, Nikki Giovanni, Amiri Baraka and Abiodun Oyewole.

(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.

(Manchester, 1954) grew up in London and studied at Cambridge and Harvard. Since 1981 he has lived in Italy, where he teaches literary translation at IULM university, Milan. He is the author of fourteen novels including Europa (1997) which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. A corrosive exposé of EC hypocrisy, Europa is narrated by savagely unhappy Jerry Marlowe who, together with his former mistress and a bus full of feckless colleagues and students, under­takes a journey to Strasbourg to petition to save a job that Jerry does not believe in. In the 1990s Parks wrote two personal accounts of life in northern Italy, Italian Neighbours and An Italian Education (published in the Netherlands in 2002,), and some years later A Season with Verona, which set out to describe Italy through the way the country engages with football. All three books achieve an exhilarating anthropological precision while the narrative voice oscillates between an insider’s and an outsider’s point of view. His most recent book, Teach Us To Sit Still, is the thought-provoking and highly entertaining story of the author's quest to overcome ill health. Parks has also translated works by Machiavelli, Moravia, Tabucchi, Calvino and Calasso and writes regularly on translation issues. His Translating Style, an analysis of Italian translations of English modernists is used as teaching material in a number of universities. Parks also publishes in the New York Review of Books and the London Review of Books.

(England, 1969) is an English writer with five books to his name. His breakthrough in the Netherlands came with the novel The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (2010). The book is situated in the 19th century and set in Japan, where Mitchell lived for eight years. The novel relates the adventures of some early 19th century East Indiamen. The main character is Jacob de Zoet, a humble clerk struggling with love. Mitchell was inspired by the diaries of the Dutch East Indiaman Hendrik Doeff, who ended up at the small island of Deshima, where he lived for a great number of years. What is striking is the descriptions of the Netherlands of the time, which make it hard to imagine that the book was written by a Briton. Earlier Mitchell wrote among others Cloud Atlas, Black Swan Green and Ghostwritten. These books were much acclaimed, not only in the Netherlands but worldwide.

(1979) is a musical jack-of-all-trades, who has been singing and playing her own songs since she was eleven years old. She accompanies herself on such varied instruments as the piano, banjo, ukelele and guitar. One of her latest big projects is Muzikaal Verhaal (Musical Story), a series of family shows in the Rotterdam Doelen concert hall. She composed the music, played by the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, but wrote the stories as well, read by Anneke Blok and Wilfried de Jong, among others. In September 2010 her first solo album Lege plaatsen in de stad (Empty places in town) appeared, with seemingly innocent songs about daily life. Together with Ellen Kromhout she made PrivéCarré, a mini performance in a self-constructed theatre on wheels. With it she performed at Oerol and the Amsterdam Fringefestival in the summer of 2010. One part of the duo Kirke she won the big prize of the Netherlands in 1997 in the category singer-songwriter. Lotte van Dijck composed film music for amongst others Sextet by Eddy Terstal and Jongens zijn we (We are boys) by Tomas Kaan.

(Amsterdam, 1972) was already known as a poet-performer before a syllable letter of hers had been published. In 1997 she became well-known nationally through her performances at big literary festivals. Her debut Genoeg gedicht over de liefde vandaag (Done enough love poetry for today) followed only two years later and was nominated instantly for the NPS-Cultuurprijs. Her second collection of poems, Koffers Zeelucht (Trunks full of sea air; 2003) was awarded twice. By the end of 2008 Loper van Licht (Light walker) appeared. Peeters aspires to give poetry a bigger role in society. Early 2009 she participated in the election of Dutch Poet Laureate. Her new collection of poems Wasdom (Growth) was published in 2011. In 2016 her first novel was published, 'Malva'. It tells the story of the daughter of poet and Nobel Prize winner Pablo Neruda.