(Morocco, 1973) is a journalist, columnist, translator, researcher and producer. She publishes in various media (including Dutch national daily newspaper NRC and women's magazine Linda); runs her own online magazine for culture lovers, Aicha Qandisha. She compiled a story collection about Arab women, Achter de sluier (Behind the Veil, 1999); 2013 saw the publication of her book Arabieren kijken (Looking at Arabs), about "ordinary" people in the Arab world. She made TV programs for various broadcasters, including the documentary series Seks en de Zonde (Sex and Sin). Together with Michelin-starred chef Soenil Bahadoer, she wrote the culinary books Spicy Chef (2020) and Streetfood (2022). She published two further books in 2022: Een koffer vol citroenen (A Suitcase Full of Lemons), a requiem for and portrait of her mother, and Arbeidsmigranten in Nederland (Migrant Labourers in the Netherlands).

(Harderwijk, 1963) hosts a Dutch public radio programme on art, culture and the media. Possel travels a lot, and one her favourite spots is Curaçao. There she became interested in the life of the Antillian writer Tip Marugg. In her book Niemand is een eiland; het leven van Tip Marugg in zestien gesprekken (No one Is An Island - the Life of Tip Marugg in Sixteen Conversations) she noted down the stories of people who used to know Marugg and investigated if the myths surroundig the writer are correct. In addition Possel has written several travel guides, such as the Wereldwijzer Curaçao. She is working on a travel guide of La Palma, La Gomera and Hierro. Before she began hosting the radio programme in 2001 Possel worked for various Dutch cultural radio programmes. She also wrote book reviews for the Dutch newspaper Het Parool.

(St Eustasius, 1955) is a singer, composer, percussionist and ngoni player. At first he played and sang only in reggae bands but in the 1980s he fell under the spell of djembé music. To improve his technique he travelled to Africa regularly to practise with the great masters of djembé music. During one of his first travels he heard the sound of the ngoni, and he learned to play this instrument as well. The ngoni is one of the oldest string instruments of Africa, made of a gourd, a piece of wood and fishing line. Sams subsequently founded his own ngoni band and concentrated on African music. In the meantime he has returned to his old love, reggae. Sams performs regularly at home and abroad with Sams Reggae band and Sams N’goni band. He also gives djembé workshops at schools.
During Winternachten 2009, on Saturday afternoon, he will perform together with his brother, the base player, and with the inseparable steelpan duo Cornel Brown and Leroy James, all from Statia.

(1981) used to draw and write a lot at a very early age. She was only ten when she sent an illustrated story to Vrij Nederland, winning her a prize immediately. After the publication of various short stories in Hollands Maandblad her first anthology appeared in 2008 entitled Zonder uitgang (Without Exit). In the twelve stories in this volume she plays with the reader's perception by conjuring up a world through an imagery totally her own. Van der Kooij studied psychology when she was eighteen in order to penetrate the thinking of her characters better. During her study she got excited by the question how the brain translates the outer world into personal experiences. Right now she works as a Ph.D. student in Utrecht doing research on the influence of context on the perception of 3D-form.

(Amsterdam, NL 1953) is an evolutionary biologist and a writer. In his essays he presents himself as the missing link between the arts and the sciences. Again and again he places science in a broader cultural framework. In his collections of essays Vis in Bad (Fish in the Bath, 2014) and Kloten van de engel (Angels' Balls; 2007) he shows that culture is often much more natural than we think. In september 2016 a collection of his essays, The Other Left Side will be published by Seven Stories Press in New York. After graduation Goldschmidt left for Tanzania for five years to study cichlids (Percidae) in Lake Victoria. That study resulted in a Ph.D. thesis and a book combining his scientific findings with personal experiences: Darwin's Dreampond (1994). This debut was translated in English, French, German, Japanese and Chinese, among others. In 1993 Goldschmidt decided to give up his academic career to become a fulltime writer. In 2007 he delivered the Huizinga Lecture in Leiden entitled Pretending to pretend. Since 2009, Tijs Goldschmidt is advisor to the State Academy of Fine Arts in Amsterdam.