Mkrtich Matevosyan is a painter and graphic designer. He was born in 1961 in Gyumri city, Armenia. In 1995, he founded the Actual Art cultural union NGO which is mainly engaged in publishing activity. Actual Art publishes books on contemporary literature, art, philosophy, as well as children's books. Mkrtich Matevosyan is also the co-founder-editor of Actual Art magazine. He has 3 children.
Lindita Tahiri teaches at the Department of English Language and Literature and at the Department of Journalism of the Faculty of Philology in Prishtina, and her courses cover Literary Criticism, Stylistics, Language and Culture, Language and Ideology, Mass Communication, and Translation. She has been Vice Rector of the University of Prishtina from 2012-2016.
Iryna Slavinska is a journalist, radio and TV presenter, translator and literary critic. In 2010, she won a grant for the investigation of stealing and frauds in the Ukrainian art-market. In 2010 and 2011, she was a jury member on BBC's Book of the Year Awards.
David Machado was born in Lisbon in 1978. He has a degree in economics from ISEG, Lisbon's School of Economics and Management, but soon devoted himself to writing fiction and children's literature. In 2005, he was awarded the Branquinho da Fonseca Prize for his children's book A Noite dos Animais Inventados and, in 2010, he was awarded the SPA/RTP Author Prize, in the category for Best Children and Youth book, for O Tubarão na Banheira.
Born in 1975, Natasha Lomouri was schooled in Georgia and in the US and started her university studies at the faculty of International Law and International Relations in Tbilisi State University, but continued at the University of Bologna, Faculty of Political Science. She was awarded with a PhD in 2004 after defending her dissertation entitled Arab-Israeli Conflict: Peace Process at the end of XXCentury at the Tbilisi State University.
Siri Odfjell Risdal (41) is Festival Director for Kapittel, Stavanger International Festival for Literature and Freedom of Speech at Sølvberget Library and Cultural Centre. Risdal is educated a librarian with a master’s in Literacy Studies, and has been a jury member for the Norwegian Ministry of Culture’s prizes for childrens literature, head of the jury for the Brage Prize for childrens literature and head of the Norwegian Cultural Council’s committee for comic books. From 2014 – 2019 Risdal was Project Manager for the Nordic Conference on childrens literature.
Daniel Cristea-Enache is a professor, author, essayist and literary critic.
"I have spent nearly all my life in the world of books. 27 years ago I bought a little bookshop at Frederiksberg in Copenhagen. Before that I was a sales representative for different Danish publishing houses for 20 years. In my early youth, I spent nearly a year working for Blackwell Scientific Publications in Oxford."
Since starting her career in the book business in 2012, Kristīne Pīkenena has been actively promoting Latvian and international literature. Currently she works as manager of the Jānis Roze Bookstore in Riga, at Kr.Barona street. She has taken part in three ICYB (International Congress of Young Booksellers), that used to gather young at heart booksellers from all around the globe. For more than six years she has been bringing together likeminded readers in the book club “Total Cover” (Totāls vāks), with monthly literary meetings on diverse subjects.
Annamaria Malato is CEO of Salerno Editrice Srl, president of the Rome Book Fair 'Più libri più liberi', member of the Committee of the Presidency and of the General Council, as well as deputy chairman for the Small Publishers Group of the AIE (Italian Publishers Association). She is also Board member of Caltagirone Editore.
