Svetlozar Zhelev

Svetlozar Zhelev is a well known contemporary expert in the Bulgarian literary field. Former publisher, TV and radio host, he was a board member of the Bulgarian Book Association from 2006 to 2010, and president of the jury for the "Translations" program of the National Culture Fund from 2018 to 2020. He is a member of the programing committee of the "TRADUKI" network, board member of ENLIT, co-founder and board member of the "Elizabeth Kostova Foundation on Creative Writing", and a lecturer in Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski" since 2013.

David Szolláth

David Szolláth, Ph. D. (1975) is a research fellow at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Research Center for the Humanities in Budapest. He is a managing editor of Literatura, the theoretical journal of the Institute of Literary Studies, HAS, and author of "A kommunista aszketizmus esztétikája" [Aesthetics of Communist Ascetism] (2011). He was an editor at the literary review Kalligram (2006-2008) and Jelenkor (2008-2018).

Shakeh Havan

In 2001, Shakeh established Artbridge, the first bookstore café and restaurant in Yerevan, Armenia. During the past 20 years, she managed to change the culture of bookselling in the country, by promoting Armenian books, exporting them to libraries and customers around the world, and participating in international book fairs with the same vision of promoting Armenian issues and literature. She has initiated the project “Exhibition and Sales” for rural area in Armenia with collaboration with publishers to promote new publications.

Andriy Kurkov

Andriy Kurkov is a writer, journalist and screenwriter. He is the author of 13 novels and 5 children books. More than 20 feature films and documentaries have been based on his scripts. He is the president of PEN Ukraine.

Anne Merethe K. Prinos

Anne Merethe K. Prinos (53) is secretary general in Norwegian Critics' Association. She holds a master in literature from the University of Oslo and has been working as a freelance literary critic in the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten for almost 20 years.

Kristian Bang Foss

Kristian Bang Foss (born 1977) is a Danish writer. His debut novel Fiskens vindue (The Window of the Fish, 2004) was acclaimed by critics. This was followed by Stormen i 99 (The Storm in 99, 2008). He won the EU Prize for Literature for his novel Døden kører Audi (Death drives an Audi, 2012). His latest novel is called Frank vender hjem (Frank comes home, 2019).

Anna Rottensteiner

Anna Rottensteiner, was born in 1962 in Bolzano/Bozen. After her studies, she worked as a bookseller, editor and literary scout (italian literature for german publishing houses). Since 2003, she has been the head of the cultural event institution "Literaturhaus am Inn" in Innsbruck. Since 2009, she has also been writing and publishing her own literary texts. 

Lucia Butnariuc

Lucia Butnariuc was born in 1995. She studied History at  the Faculty of History and Philosophy of Moldova State University,. Since September 2019, she is a bookseller at Cărturești Chișinău.