Spoken word artist Jeannine Valeriano and her team of (guest) musicians and drawing artists - together Spoken Beat Night - create cross-over concerts in which jazz, spoken word, world music, readings, live animation and funky beats merge. The two artists do live sketches, which are personal and imagistic interpretations of the text. Spoken Beat Night plays with language; the team, plus top musicians from the comopolitan world of improvised music, pull the writers' words into the world of sound. With Jeannine Valerio (vocals), Maarten Ornstein (bass clarinet, saxophone and electronics), guitarist Paul Pallesen, illustrator and animator Floor de Goede, drawing artist Hans van de Meulengraaf, cellist Jörg Brinkmann and – in Saturday Night Unlimited - as a guest Nizar Rohana on oud.

(1960, The Hague, NL) emigrated from the Netherlands to Australia in 1967. There, he studied Dutch, English, rhetoric and philosophy, became a nurse, and debuted as a writer in 1998. His 2002 best-seller The Crimson Petal and the White, about a young prostitute in Victorian London, constituted his international breakthrough. In Dickensian scenarios sprinkled with Freudian, post-Marxist and feminist themes he describes how she becomes a governess and, after being fired, learns to survive together with her pupil. In 2015 The Book of Wonderful New Things appeared; it is about the love between a minister, who travels to another planet, and his wife, who stays home and receives his letters. He wrote this best-seller while losing his wife Eva to cancer. He said he was done with writing, but did in fact publish Undying - A Love Story, a volume of poetry in memory of the love of his life.

(Czech Republic, 1977) has enjoyed a kind of popstar status since his 2009 book The Economy of Good and Evil became an international best-seller. In it, he argues that the economy cannot be put into mathematical formulas but emerges from our culture. To understand the economy, his argument draws on myths, religion, theology, philosophy, psychology, literature and film. In a nutshell, the economy is about good and evil. In his homeland, Sedlacek has evolved into a phenomenon; a theatre production based on his work draws full houses at the National Theatre in Prague. As a child, Sedlacek lived for nine years in Finland and Denmark. At age 24, during his studies at the Karels University in Prague, he became economic advisor to then-President Vaclav Havel. The economist, who calls himself a "Christian anarchist," currently works as a strategist with the Czech merchant bank CSOB and as a university lecturer.

(The Netherlands, 1984) is a writer of novels, screenplays, plays, short stories and essays on media and popular (online) culture. Bervoets made her debut in 2009 with Of hoe waarom (Or How Why), followed two years later by Lieve Céline (Dear Céline), which was awarded the Opzij Literature Prize. A year later, the bestseller Alles wat er was (Everything That Was) was published, followed by Efter (2014), Ivanov (2016), Fuzzie (2017) and Welkom in het Rijk der zieken (Welcome to the Kingdom of the Sick) (2019). In 2017, Bervoets won the BNG Bank Literature Prize for Ivanov, and in the same year she also won the Frans Kellendonk Prize for her entire oeuvre. In 2021, her first collection of short stories, Een modern verlangen (A Modern Desire), was published and awarded the J.M.A. Biesheuvel Prize. In 2025, her tenth novel, Geld verdienen (Earning Money), was published. When Ellie and Freya each need money for their own reasons, they decide to take control of the stock market. After all, don't they deserve to be rich too?

Go to the website of Hanna Bervoets
Instagram: @hannabervoets

(Bucharest, 1956) is considered the greatest contemporary Romanian writer. His novel The Knowers is part one of the semi-autobiographical Orbitor trilogy that has been wholly translated into Dutch. In it, the writer transports us to the bygone world of his mother's ancestors - Romanianized Bulgarians, full of "ancient, pre-Christian terror." Part two, The Trophy, is set during the bombings of World War II and the Russian invasion. Part three, The Vast Mausoleum, describes the great changes that took place during the revolution in Romania. Cărtărescu's books form a chain of stories that link up by association, told in rich language. Reality alternates with magic. With its stormy streams of thought and crazy ideas, this saga elicits comparisons with James Joyce's Ulysses and Gabriel García Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude. 

(Oost-Souburg, NL, 1959) studied Dutch and Literary Theory in Leiden. He spent several years as a professional dancer. Later he developed into a versatile radio-maker at the NCRV broadcaster, including the successful "Casa Luna" programme. He now hosts two programmes on Radio 4: "Passaggio" (weekdays at 7 p.m.) and the talk show "Diskotabel." He also works in theatre as a dramaturge and writer. He is increasingly active as a presenter of concerts, conferences and debates. Every Saturday, he publishes an interview with an inspiring special guest in De Correspondent online daily.