Adam Fathi (real name: GASMI Fathi) is a Tunisian poet and translator born in 1957. He published several poetry collections including: Sept lunes pour la gardienne de la tour ('Seven moons for the tower keeper'), 1982 ; Chants pour la fleur de poussière ('Songs for the dust flower'), 1991 ; Le souffleur de verre aveugle ('The blind glassblower'), 2011.
Velizara Dobreva has thirty years of experience in publishing. She is executive director of Story House Egmont Bulgaria, a leading publishing house of children’s books, fiction, and non-fiction in Bulgaria. She is president of the Bulgarian Book Association since 2017.
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.
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).
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.
Endre Szkárosi (b. 1952, Budapest) is a writer, poet and performance artist. As full professor he teaches literature at the University ELTE (Budapest), heading there also a literary doctoral programme. He has been a frequently encountered writer and performer on both the Hungarian and the international art scene as well as a scholar interested in the history and the theoretical background of 20th century experimental poetry and intermedia art. He was and has been editor of important reviews (Mozgó Világ, Új Hölgyfutár, Magyar Műhely/Atelier Hongrois) and editor of a number of anthologies.
Wojciech Nowicki (1968) is a writer, essayist and translator. In addition to his interest in literature, he is also a culinary critic for the Kraków edition of the daily newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza and the co-founder of the foundation Imago Mundi, whose goal is to promote photography. He currently lives in Kraków.
Liviu Papadima is a critic, essayist, professor and vice-rector of the University of Bucharest.
Alessia Rastelli (Civitanova Marche, Macerata - 1982) is a journalist for the "Corriere della Sera", where she is part of the editorial team of the Culture section and of the cultural supplement "la Lettura" (The Reading). She graduated from the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa after studying Modern and Contemporary Literature. She is the co-author of the web series "The noise of memory. Vera’s journey from the Shoah to desaparecidos", directed by Marco Bechis and turned into a movie.
Toby Lichtig is the Fiction and Politics Editor of the Times' Literary Supplement (TLS). He writes for a range of publications, including the TLS, Wall Street Journal, Telegraph, FT, Jewish Chronicle and New Humanist, and has appeared as a guest critic on various television and radio programmes. He also freelances as a documentary producer. He was chair of judges of last year's JQ/Wingate Prize.
